South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party waded into controversy over the racial make-up of the country's rugby and cricket national teams on Tuesday by labelling them "lily-white". Their salvo came after opposition parties roundly denounced sports minister Steve Tshwete's comment that he was "fed up" with the fact that South Africa's world-beating teams in the two sports were almost exclusively white.
"Nobody can dispute the fact that both rugby and cricket national teams remain lily-white teams despite the fact that calls for their transformation were made more than five years ago," the ANC said in a statement. "For example, in cricket where (bowlers) Makhaya Ntini and Paul Adams have proved themselves beyond any doubt, the national selectors left them out in the cold for the Test against the West Indies for the flimsiest of reasons," the statement said.
Convenor of cricket selectors, Peter Pollock defended the "all-white" selection at the time of the squad's announcement by saying it was picked purely on merit.
South Africa's cricketers beat the West Indies for the first time in a Test match on Monday, while the rugby Springboks may well complete a Grand Slam and break the world record for consecutive victories when they play England today.
Though both teams have had black players since apartheid was abolished in 1994, decades of racial discrimination denied sports facilities and opportunities to the majority of South Africans.
Tshwete's reported comments that the government would name a special commission next year and intervene decisively to promote black players into national squads brought howls from mainly white opposition parties and newspapers editorials critical of any "racial quota" in sport.
The opposition National Party somewhat hilariously denounced Tshwete's comments as posing "a serious threat to the bright future of South African sport" and as "inherently racist". The National Party appears to have forgotten that it was the ANC who fought a guerilla war to overthrow them as they, the architects of apartheid, persistently defended white racism in sport.
