Fikile Mbalula, the secretary-general of the ANC, took to X (formerly Twitter) to lament the make-up of the Proteas squad which is playing in next month’s T20 Cricket World Cup, due to be held in the United States and the Caribbean.
Mbalula lamented the fact that there was only one ‘African’ in the squad and that this was a ‘reserval’ (sic) of the gains of transformation.
The fifteen-man squad, which will be captained by Aiden Markram, only has one black player, Kagiso Rabada, and five other players of colour.
Replies to Mbalula’s post pointed out that he had been the minister of sport and had done little to develop the sport in disadvantaged areas. Others said that the team must be picked on merit if it wants a chance of winning a first World Cup in the sport for South Africa.