Mbalula stands his ground on SARU ban
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula paid a visit to the Springboks at their team hotel in Cape Town today ahead of Saturday's first Test against Ireland at Newlands. Inevitably, the subject of the SARU ban also reared it's head.
He gave the Boks a few motivational words and was presented
with a Bok jersey by the team.
Mbalula once again took the opportunity to reiterate his stance on transformation targets by the various sporting codes in South Africa.
The South African Rugby Union’s ambitions to bid for the
hosting rights to the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament were dealt another body blow.
With a deadline for submissions looming in September, Mbalula remains adamant that he is standing by the ban imposed on certain sports federations from bidding for major global events in the country - which includes rugby - for not meeting transformation deadlines.
In
terms of SARU’s transformation targets, 50% of the Bok team needs to feature
players of colour by 2019.
The current team picked to face Ireland on Saturday features five players of colour.
With a September deadline looming for SARU to submit a hosting rights bid to World Rugby, Mbalula may have scuppered any plans to still salvage the situation by reiterating that the ban is only up for review next year.
He did, however soften the blow slightly by reminding the rugby-mad public that the measures to accelerate transformation should still not be seen as punitive measures, but rather as an ongoing constructive process.