Race-based quotas called into question in South Africa

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has launched a campaign to gather the support of South Africans against racial quotas in South African sports.?

The campaign was launched after the Minister of Sport, Fikile Mbalula, announced that sports teams will be forced to employ a quota system which requires that 60% of the players in a team be black.??

According to Kallie Kriel, ceo of AfriForum, complaints to international sporting federations will carry a lot of weight, as most of them explicitly prohibit any form of racial discrimination.

Kriel also pointed out that the same stipulation is explicitly included in the Olympic Manifesto, which is applicable to most sports, as well as the regulations issued by the International Rugby Board, the International Cricket Council and the International Netball Federation.??

Kriel said that AfriForum unequivocally supports affording all South Africans an equal opportunity to participate. A race-based quota system does not, however, contribute to the development of new players and merely disadvantages talented sport stars.

“Talented black players are disadvantaged by quotas because the validity of their inclusion into teams is always questioned, and young white players are excluded from teams because they happen to be of the wrong race,” Kriel said.