South Africa's rugby players will make a bold statement against racism in the country after two incidents in the past weeks brought the issue to the forefront once again.
The South African Rugby Union announced on Thursday that its provinces and sponsors had agreed to the 'dramatic' statement which entails all provincial teams foregoing sponsorship to wear an anti-racism message on their jerseys during the Absa Currie Cup matches.
SARU described the plan as the ‘single biggest stand against racism ever undertaken by rugby’.
The move comes after a black rugby fan was racially abused and assaulted at Coca Cola Park in Johannesburg during the Springboks 53-8 win over the Wallabies two weeks ago and on Friday after the Soweto Rugby Club withdrew its affiliation to the Golden Lions Rugby Union because of what they described as ‘continued racism’.
‘Absa and SA Rugby are funding the application of three-dimensional anti-racism slogans to the weekend's playing fields while the team sponsors have given up the prime space on the players' chests to accommodate the "No to Racism" message,’ a statement from SARU said.
‘This is a huge initiative that our provincial unions and sponsors instantly bought into,’ said Mr Oregan Hoskins, the president of the South African Rugby Union.
‘We are putting the message squarely in front of our supporters and the whole rugby community so there can be no doubt about where rugby stands - we are utterly opposed to racism and will continue to campaign to get that message across.’
After the attack on Ziningi Shibambo, a black rugby fan at Coca Cola Park, SARU offered a reward of R10000 ‘for information leading to the identification of the perpetrators, which has so far failed to yield a response.’
‘It was a hideously cowardly attack on Ms Shibambo but it has helped galvanise us on an issue that we hoped was dying its own natural death,’ said Mr Hoskins.
‘We now have an anti-racism message on all our website pages and have added a sentence from our constitution to our letterhead which states “the union will foster the game amongst all persons irrespective of race, colour, creed or gender”’
‘But we wanted to go further and make the most public statement we could manage and I think this initiative does precisely that.’
Ms Shibambo added: ‘I'm glad that my experience has provoked such a visible response from rugby. We have to confront racism whenever we encounter it and this initiative sends out a very loud message.
My experience 10 days ago should serve as a timely reminder that racism can still affect us. We should also not forget that racism is still as much an issue now as it has ever been. I reiterate that I do not hold rugby officials, the sport of rugby itself nor the stadium responsible for what has happened to me and I believe this symbolic stand against all forms of discrimination in the game is most important.
‘It is a concerted effort that will help combat the scourge of racism within our sporting codes. I have been overwhelmed by the support I have had from rugby people - I am glad I can back them in this campaign.’
The slogan will first appear on hoardings at the SAA National Club Champs in Stellenbosch on Thursday evening when the competition's semi-finals take place.
The first players to run out wearing the slogan will be those of the Pumas and the SWD Eagles who play in Witbank and the Vodacom Blue Bulls and Boland Cavaliers who meet at Loftus Versfeld, both on Friday night.
‘We'd like to thank all our team sponsors for their co-operation in this initiative,’ said Mr Hoskins.
‘They are giving up their commercial rights this week but, like us, they believe it's a small price to pay to get the message across.’
