Quotas are not the answer to diversity in sport

08 September 2014

While the DA fully supports the need for diversity in rugby, the South African Rugby Union's (SARU) plans will not properly address the real problems hindering the development of black sporting talent.

According to reports today, SARU confirmed that there is a five-year plan to be put in place to ensure that "players of colour comprise half of the Springbok team in 2019" (see Cape Times report)..

The lack of diversity in our national rugby team is a reflection of the unequal opportunities facing so many of our people. There are also serious deficiencies in identification and the proper development of talent in poor communities. 

The mooted introduction of quotas in the Springboks will not resolve these fundamental problems.  Only with a grass-roots approach can we attain the laudable goal of representative sporting teams. 

The DA's policy on sports development would be able to achieve this, and in fact reflects the department's own white paper on sport and recreation which notes that "transformation should be implemented at school/youth levels to prepare a broad basis of athletes for participation at higher levels in the future". 

This model has succeeded in the DA-run Western Cape when greater emphasis is placed on:

Prioritising investment in grassroots level sport, with a specific focus on women, the youth, people with disabilities, the aged and rural communities; 

Investing in a national talent identification process;

Requiring national federations to develop transformation plans to broaden participation in their respective codes; 

Focusing investment in sport and recreation facilities at local and provincial level on facilities for communities in previously disadvantaged communities; 

Promoting the roll-out of MOD centres across all provinces; and 

Investing in audience development for priority sports - across all South African communities. 

Government and sporting bodies, such as SARU, would do well to focus their attention on bottom-up development in sports and not on cosmetic transformative mechanisms that will not yield meaningful change in the long term. 

Statement issued by Solly Malatsi MP, DA Shadow Minister of Sport and Recreation, September 8 2014

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