Komphela – Australia has a history of racism

Politician Butana Komphela, the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, today slammed Australians as being ‘racist’ after the Wallaby players handled the Nelson Mandela Plate with disrespect following their victory over the Springboks.

“Australia has a history of racism. If you recall, during the times of the struggle for non-racial sport it was Australia who were pumping apartheid South Africa with rebel tours,” said the politician.

“I was not surprised to see them do what they did. That is the same country where South African expats wave the Vierkleur flag and Indians are called terrorists. Remember when Hashim Amla took that catch? An Australian commentator said something like ‘another wicket for the terrorist’.

Komphela’s previous contributions to the wellbeing of South African rugby were his reference to Os Snyman, and his threat to convince the minister of Home Affairs to cancel the team’s passports unless they met ‘transformation’ requirements.

He had another dig at the slow progress of ‘transformation’ in the South African game.

“Transformation can’t start from the top. You need to build a solid foundation from the bottom up. Then you target areas that are not transformed, such as administration and coaching. It’s a holistic approach. We have another 15 years to go in pursuit of free sport and non-racism.

“Winning cannot be at the expense of change and transformation. We must not be dying to win when we can’t move forward. We should be saying we are not going to win for the next five years while we transform so that one day when we do win, we all win as a country, with no black and white issues,” he concluded.