CSA’s racial quotas will not fix chaos in South African cricket

1 September 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) rejects Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) commitment to only appoint "Black consultants" across the board to speed up transformation. This was confirmed by its newly appointed acting CEO, Kugandrie Govender, today.

This internal commitment from CSA to the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, will stop the Proteas from utilising some of the best-skilled cricket players such as Jaques Kallis to help coach our national cricket team. Appointments should be based on skill and merit and instead of handicapping the team, the CEO could rather increase the talent pool of consultants to address transformation in that way.

The DA is committed to transformation in sport, but this can only be achieved with political will on the part of the government to develop sports at a grassroots level. The reality is that this decision to enforce a racial quota system will not address the dysfunction that is currently reigning in South African cricket.

This decision by the cricket authority will not in any grow or strengthen cricket in South Africa, but it will only serve to exclude certain South Africans on the basis of race. This is completely at odds with our Constitution, which explicitly states that no South African should be discriminated against based on the colour of their skins.

Issued by Willem Faber, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Sport, 1 August 2020