A DEEPER question lies behind the resignation of South Africa's national rugby coach after the playing on television of a secret tape recording in which he referred to blacks as kaffirs."

It is whether the racist slurs reflect a broader mentality within the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) or whether they are peculiar to the now lachrymose Andre Markgraaff.

There are cogent reasons for suspecting that the racist attitude which Markgraaff's language reflects is deeply rooted within SARFU, although most of its office bearers are much more circumspect in their public and even private utterances, now more than ever.

SARFU vice president Mluleki George - one of the men castigated by Markgraaff as a "f... kaffir" - admits as much in his appraisal of the much talked of episode.

George, who is the president of the National Sports Council as well as SARFU's vice president, said: "South Africa has lived under racism for many decades and centuries and it would be naive to think it would disappear overnight. In almost all (South African) institutions there are problems of racism."

George's point is hard to gainsay. But racist attitudes may, for historical reason, be particularly prevalent in rugby. Rugby has long been primarily a white man's sport in South Africa. It has been and still is permeated with the macho values associated with decades of white hegemony.

Hence the past inclination of blacks to cheer for visiting foreign teams, a disposition which is not yet dead as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel showed when he whooped for joy as New Zealand came from behind to defeat South Africa in a test match in Cape Town last year.

Markgraaff's scapegoating of "f..... kaffirs" when he was under pressure last year for his decision to drop former Springbok captain Francois Pienaar - as shown by the secret tape recording of his remarks - is unlikely to have been a sudden development. Stereotypes and prejudices are usually acquired over years.

Yet there is no record of opposition within SARFU's upper echelons to his choice as manager coach of the Springboks. It suggests, primafacie, condonation of his attitude until he was trapped into expressing it within range of a hidden microphone and then only after the contents of the tape were made public.

It is in that context that the protestations of innocence by SAFRU chief executive officer Rian Oberholzer should be seen. "We are not a racist organisation," he said. "Rugby is proud to be part of the new South Africa and racism in any form will not be tolerated."

Another related issue is agitating many South Africans, not least Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.

It is whether SAFRU president Louis Luyt, knew of but chose to ignore Markgraaff's verbal abuse of blacks long before the tape recording was broadcast on South African television. The suspicion is that he, like Markgraaff, hoped that affair would blow over.

Markgraaff has told the media that he first learnt of the tape containing his racist remarks last November shortly before the test match against France and that he immediately contacted Luyt to seek his advice.

The supposition is that Markgraaff would at the time have - at the least - told Luyt about its contents before being advised by the rugby supremo to seek legal advice.

The chairperson of the ANC study group on sport, Lulu Xingwana, minces no words on the issue she charges that Luyt knew of the contents of the tape but chose not to act on it. For that reason she has called on Luyt to resign.

SAFRU press officer Alex Broun, however, is equally emphatic: "We deny allegations that SARFU knew of the contents of the tape very, very strongly." Markgraaff provides partial support: "Dr Luyt never had the transcription of the tape. Please accept that."

A former rugby official avers that derogatory references to blacks are fairly common in the rugby fraternity, although he stresses that he has never heard Luyt describe black people as kaffirs.

Further signs that Markgraaff's abusive language is not an isolated incident but rather - as the ANC's Xingwana put it - "part of an on going saga" include the arbitrary dismissal last year of Edward Griffiths as SAFRU chief executive officer - Griffiths is a man who won the respect of blacks by his commitment to development of the sport in underprivileged and predominantly black areas the decision to select Henry Tromp is hooker for the national team against New Zealand last year; Tromp was convicted of killing a young black boy who had been accused of theft; Luyt's crowing attitude after he beat off a challenge to his presidency of the Transvaal Rugby Union (TRU) - the jewel in South Africa's rugby crown - by Brian Van Rooyen, a coloured lawyer and former TRU vice president, may have contained racial connotations: he abused Van Rooyen as a stupid fool, exclaiming triumphantly: "You are gone now."

Van Rooyen, however, has not given up. His 500 page dossier of alleged abuses and malpractices in the SAFRU has led sports minister Steve Tshwete to appoint a three member task team to investigate SARFU, a development which has enraged Luyt and his son in law Oberholzer.