COSATU welcomes Heyneke Meyer’s resignation and calls for an investigation into why he was given an extension of his contract just before the Rugby World Cup.   

3 December 2015  

Cosatu welcomes the resignation of Heyneke Meyer and welcomes the opportunity this brings to restore South African Rugby. The Problems in Rugby is much deeper than the coach and it reflects on the entire leadership of the sport. We need to review Oregan Hoskins’ continued tenure as leader also, as he has let transformation down and he must take responsibility for the crisis in Rugby. We won’t let the systemic crisis in Rugby be left intact by the resignation of Heyneke, we want the entire racist, unfair system to change, not just some fall guy to be presented to the media.  

Cosatu claims this as a victory for transformation and a victory for the efforts of Cosatu on behalf of workers, who include Rugby players. Cosatu will consider retracting its pressure on Corporates to divest from Rugby, if a new leadership and acceptable transformation plan is announced. We ask Corporates to continue applying the pressure to SARU and to not make decisions for investment in SARU, until an acceptable transformation plan is agreed to with the role players.

-.Cosatu calls on Corporates to insist that future investments and sponsorship in Rugby goes toward development and closing the inequality gap between white and black sports facilities, from clubs to schools and Provinces;

-.Cosatu also calls for a leadership team in Rugby to reflect all the interest groups, with a proven track record of transformation;

-.Cosatu calls on the leadership who has been assimilated into the white values System to resign;

-.We call on those who gave up on the black communities’ rugby dreams for the perks and wealth of the positions, to also resign, before we start a campaign to push them out.

The time has come to choose a side in Rugby, either you are for transformation, or you stand for perpetuating the apartheid generational advantage of white players in the sport. This nonsense that the racist perpetuate about quota players must also stop, as we have seen that the real quota players are people like Matfield and co.; who clearly are no longer suited to the modern game.

Cosatu will not stop its campaign against the leadership and funders of Rugby, until the sport is on a clear and fair trajectory where everyone gets an equal chance. The focus of Cosatu includes players, the administrators and referees of the game.

Cosatu will be protesting with the rugby community at the meeting of SARU in Cape TOWN on 11 December 2015, to reinforce our point that it is not only Heyneke that must go, but also some of the leadership of SARU who were complicit in this anti transformation crisis in Rugby. The fact that SARU have tried to hide the venue of the meeting is symptomatic of their refusal to account to the SA rugby community and supporters. We will hold this fact against the leadership of SARU who have become complacent about transformation and now tries to hide from South Africans.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, Spokesperson, Cosatu, 3 December 2015