Waterdodos?
Sapa is running a story quoting Die Burger which says that the Western Province water polo team competing in an inter-provincial in Cape Town this week was banned from the finals because it had no black players.
The reports said that another five teams had been excluded earlier for the same reason. So the finals were played between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal which had come last in the qualifying stages. Gauteng handed back their medals at the end of the game (which they won 14-4), saying they did not consider themselves to be worthy winners under the circumstances.
I find this whole thing a bit of a jaw-dropper. I've written in support of quotas in sport before but I find it astounding that this should be happening at the pool side and not before teams even arrive for the competition. The quotas are not particularly onerous: one black player or manager per team. The report does not specify if these have to be black African, or broadly black.
One of the officials, when asked why they had not excluded Western Province earlier, said it was because they could not tell from the names list which players were black.
I've got a simple solution for swimming's administrators: why don't you just bring back the pencil test. You can use it on the pool deck to see who can compete and who can't.
Or why don't we ask everyone to provide DNA analysis of their ancestry so they can all be nice and comfortably categorised for these dodos?
Blogged with Flock
Tags: waterpolo, quotas, sports
December 11th, 2007 - 15:38
Dear Officials
Promote the sport to more younger black players at grass level. This will address transformation issues far better than quotas.
Please click the File menu, then select ‘Print’, then take this advice to your next meeting.
Simple.
Love,
The youth of this country