The Cricket South Africa (CSA) board’s decision to compel the Protea cricket team to take a knee before every T20 World Cup match in solidarity against racism is hypocritical and amounts to gross political interference.
It is causing irreparable damage to South African sport in general and sport in particular, so the FF Plus will send an official letter to CSA to raise its objection.
Moreover, the CSA’s own racist slip is showing as recently it failed to congratulate Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir along with Lungi Ngidi on their Indian Premier League (IPL) achievements.
Ngidi was the only player congratulated by CSA in a recent tweet, while no mention was made of Du Plessis who was named player of the match in the final IPL match.
Even though CSA later edited its tweet, the initial tweet is clearly indicative of CSA’s underlying racial discrimination, which is driven by its political agenda.
It is absurd that CSA is forcing a team to take a knee against racism while the board itself is guilty of blatant racism.
The spirit of sport is one of reconciliation and nation building, but such political interference will once again turn sport into a vehicle for discrimination and division.
CSA’s newly appointed board obviously feels like it has something to prove and is trying to score cheap political points with the Minister of Sport with this absurd directive. This is a self-made racial pitfall for the CSA and unfortunately, for the Proteas as well.
It also raises the question of whether this directive from CSA as employer is justifiable and correct under labour law and in terms of the Constitution.
CSA’s political agenda is bound to catch up with it soon and it will be to the detriment of the sport, its players and fans. Not using cricket to promote reconciliation and nation building in South Africa will be one more failure to add to the long list of failures by the ruling party with its misguided ideology.
The FF Plus is committed to putting an end to political interference in sport and the arts.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Heloïse Denner on FF Plus
