‘Completely ridiculous’ and ‘unconstitutional and wrong’ is how opposition parties this week described Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa’s request for SA Rugby to take action against eight players who declined to take the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign.
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Zakhele Mbhele said this was ‘completely ridiculous and nothing short of a witch hunt aimed at vilifying those players for practising their constitutional rights of freedom of choice and freedom of association’.
FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said Mthethwa’s threats were ‘unconstitutional and wrong’, and that forcing anyone to taken the knee for BLM was ‘in effect subjugating them to Marxism’.
In a statement, Mbhele said: ‘It is exactly (these kinds) of utterances by the Minister that divide us.
‘No South African should be coerced to demonstrate support for any movement. South Africa is a Constitutional Democracy, and freedom of choice and freedom of association are fundamental rights.’
He added that ‘if, how and when’ players chose to show solidarity or support for the BLM movement ‘should be their choice’, and it was not for Mthethwa or the government ‘to police or vilify them’.
Groenewald said in a statement: ‘The FF Plus feels that the Minister’s statements concerning certain rugby players are unacceptable. South Africa’s Constitution makes provision for freedom of association and if the Minister thinks that he can force sport participants, or anyone else, to take a knee for BLM, he is in effect subjugating them to Marxism.
‘BLM is nothing but a Marxist movement and every South African has the constitutional right to refuse to kneel for an unacceptable ideology. The FF Plus encourages every person who does not want to take a knee, to instead take a strong stand on the matter and to invoke the Constitution.’
Groenewald added that the FF Plus was ‘strongly opposed to any form of police brutality and racism’, and this included ‘any legislation or institution that uses race as a premise’, such as South Africa’s race-based affirmative action and empowerment measures.