Letter: Give every child chance to play sport

THE drive from the sports minister and from Saru should be to ensure youth in the townships/previously disadvantaged areas have an equal opportunity to play rugby as the youth in the suburbs do. The only way to do this is to invest in the infrastructure and human resources needed to ensure there is an average of one club for every four junior and high schools in the townships and in the same area. So they will not need bursaries to play rugby or taxis for transport. After school, if rugby is the sport of their choice, there is club close by (within walking distance and which will also give them a meal after practice). This is more important that quotas in the Springbok team because the emphasis is on every kid in South Africa having the same opportunity as the next to play rugby if he chooses to. This will in itself ensure genuine transformation in rugby. The same should be done for cricket, tennis, swimming, etc. That way the youth in the townships will be given that awesome opportunity to play sport throughout their school careers, and to play for the love of the game, for the joy of the game.

We’re going in the wrong direction by saying 50% of the team must be black – we are not pushing for equal opportunity but quotas. What is more important: that all the youth in South Africa have an equal opportunity to play rugby or that having equal opportunity must come second to having a Springbok team with 50% black players. If the main drive is quotas, years from now, we will still be sitting in the same situation! Only a select elite from the townships will get to play rugby and the others will not get given that opportunity. We need to go to the heart of the problem. The main cause for not producing enough players of colour is because the youth in the townships are not getting equal opportunity to play the game. The Saru plan should show the finances allocated to building sports clubs in the townships, and how much for food, and for employing staff to coach, administer, etc. We need to see what is going on accurately to make better decision and drive this agenda correctly! It should be done in conjunction with cricket, hockey and tennis bodies. Each club much be a world class club, with tennis courts, squash courts, etc – do it properly and hire project managers to handle the whole thing.