Solidarity hands over 52 000 petitions to Minister Mbalula

Trade union Solidarity today handed over 52 000 petitions, enough to fill all Loftus Versfeld's seats, to Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula regarding the controversial new quota system in sport. Solidarity and the civil rights organisation AfriForum met with the minister in Pretoria to discuss objections to the new quota system and vowed to test any quota in sport in the courts. Unfortunately for the minister, Solidarity's success rate in the courts against quotas is better than that of the state.

Johan Kruger, spokesperson for Solidarity, said it was a robust conversation and that the parties agreed to have further discussions in the future. Kruger said the union also handed over a memorandum to the minister stating that quotas in sport are bad for everyone and unlawful to boot. ‘From a legal and moral viewpoint, quotas cannot be defended and a quota disadvantages the black netball player as much as it disadvantages the white one. It creates a generation of young people who believe the system will take care of them. Quotas create a new enslavement - enslavement to the system.'

Kruger said the recommendations in the pilot study that were approved by the minister are based on an unlawful quota system. ‘It is unacceptable to use unlawful practices as threats. It constitutes a form of blackmail. It will force the respective unions and bodies to act unlawfully. The problem is that the minister's recent threats create a climate in which quotas are enforced in practice without it being defined in regulations.'

Kruger said quotas flies in the face of what all sport stands for. ‘It is not tenable, neither from a moral, nor from a legal position. Solidarity's focus is on the impact of quotas on the employer/employee relationship in the sport environment. In the era of professional sport, employer and employee contracts develop between unions and professional sportsmen and women. Many other employer/employee relations also develop within the sport environment,   including those involved in sport administration as well as umpires and referees."

According to Kruger, the problem is that the minister is pursuing something which has not yet been achieved anywhere in the world. ‘All over the world certain groups excel more in certain sport codes. This applies do different countries but also within countries. The sprints in athletics are dominated by Jamaica; basketball by African Americans; and the Kenyans dominate marathon running. The minister's grand idea that all teams have to reflect the national racial demographics has never been achieved in the history of all of mankind.'

Statement issued by Johan Kruger, Spokesperson: Solidarity, April 23 2014

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