The minister of sport, Nathi Mthethwa, has asked SA Rugby to take a stand on eight South African rugby players who refused to ‘take a knee’ in support of Black Lives Matter at a game played in England over the weekend.
Professional rugby returned to England this weekend, with one of the first games being between Harlequins and the Sale Sharks. Before the match all fifteen Harlequins players took a knee. By contrast, eleven of the fifteen Sale Sharks players did not, including eight South Africans.
They included the side’s captain, Jono Ross, and two Springboks who had played in last year’s winning World Cup team in Japan, Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager.
Although the players did not kneel, all Sale Sharks wore t-shirts supporting ‘rugby against racism’.
According to The Sowetan, Mthethwa was quoted as saying: ‘We do not want to jump the gun on the specific matter of the South African players in England who didn’t kneel in support of the BLM movement but we did say we want to understand what’s happening‚ and what is the position of SA Rugby in this whole thing.’
He also said that people showing ‘racist behaviour’ would not be tolerated and that the government would take steps against people with racist attitudes. The minister said: ‘We are ready to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that people toe the line and those who are racist are taught to embrace other people. If that doesn’t happen‚ government is going to come in handy to ensure that we do what the constitution mandates us to do. Non-racialism is not just something that is superficial but it has to come from the roots.’
Mthethwa did not explain how deciding to not take a knee was racist.
The CEO of SA Rugby, Jurie Roux, said that he could not comment on the matter until the body’s exco had met.
Image: GCIS