COSATU WC convening Springbok supporters for transformation

25 August 2015

Springboks for transformation meeting to be held on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 at 18h30, at the Community House, 41 Salt River Road, Salt River.

COSATU Western Cape will be convening a meeting of the various rugby clubs in the City of Cape Town to discuss the issue of transformation.

This meeting will evaluate what the developments are in rugby and the steps that are necessary to get transformation moving.

This meeting will also decide on a minimum plan for transformation that would get the “Springbok supporters concerned about transformation” behind the Springbok team in the World Cup. We have already seen the more mixed the team, the better the results as witnessed by the Springbok VS Argentina match.

We will be addressed by the former coach, Pieter De Villiers and a member of the WP Rugby Board as well as experts on Sports Transformation. The media is invited to this meeting to report on the sentiments of the sport in respect of what is happening. Coach De Villiers is the coach with the best results against the All Blacks, in spite of how the white press would want to condemn him. Cosatu will be convening Springboks for transformation in all the Provinces of the Country.

We will be formulating a set of demands that will be taken to the SARU management to bring a resolution to the Springbok team and selection debacle that has seen the Springboks lose against a second rate Argentinean side, because Heynecke wants to select out of form white players instead of in form black players for positions.

The demands will include a greater sense of transparency in respect of the transformation and developments plans; a clear set aside of SARU funds for development in the previously disadvantaged areas; the putting in place of objective selection processes and the end of white manipulation thereof, as seen by John Smith signalling support of a particular player in a television interview.

Statement issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, August 25 2015