Cosatu reacts to SARU's open letter

SARU's president Oregan Hoskins penned a letter on Tuesday defending his administration's record. 

Hoskins claims rugby has massively transformed since 1992 saying the idea of a white-dominated game is laughable. 

But Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich is not convinced.

''Any attempt to spin the problem away now a few days before the World Cup is not going to work. We need real actions to deal with the problem.

''And even if the president of SARU or the minister of sports in South Africa makes whatever statement they've made about transformation the sad reality is that they have failed Rugby and they have failed South Africa in the respect of transforming the game,'' he said.

The Boks are looking to become the first team to lift the Web Ellis Cup for a third time.  The 1995 and 2007 champions open their campaign against Japan next Saturday.

The SA Rugby men are set to leave for the tournament this afternoon.

Read Cosatu's response below:

''It is really sad that this is the kind of justification that SARU uses to try and vindicate itself, making a massive public statement through the President to try and argue against the failure of transformation over the past 20 years. The point that we made was a simple one; there are black players and white players who are better than thee favourites in the team.

Why are these injured old white players elected? Whose interests are served? Clearly they are not our country’s best. The Argentinean game showed the point, the majority black team is better than the majority white Springbok team so stop repeating the SARU narrative that less white players equals a weaker team.

The million rand spin doctors have now only been able to craft a response to the widespread criticism of the resource allocation and control of rugby at all levels of the game. They don’t touch on many of the areas where they are obviously exposed, like the black history of the sport and why certain players are excluded. They try this Apartheid style spin doctoring gimmick of trying to set the narrative for what we must consider in our South African National sports. A sport that receives millions of rand from public funds, being the tax rebates sponsors get for giving money to rugby and the elites of rugby.

Instead of presenting platitudes to the nation that tries to conjure up some misplaced patriotism through rugby jerseys on Friday and taking some silly grass to the World Cup. Why does the President not talk about the real things in rugby, such as the lack of opportunity for the young black child in black clubs and schools? If you want to get the blacks who are concerned about rugby transformation, behind the game, then tell us who the representative starting 15 is for the first match, or why the clubs and schools at Junior level are not forced to share facilities and resources under SARU in the Western Cape.

I personally will support the Springboks in this World Cup, but not for the advertising companies’ sanitised lies that the President presents. I will support the team because it is part of our plan, in progressive circles, to radically challenge the control and ownership of rugby, a sport that belongs to the entire nation.

The view of the President of SARU and the Minister does not influence my support as they are the people who failed transformation. So don’t tell us about imbizos or 10 point plans, show us the money and we will put it in the development of black sport, as that is the issue, not sugar coated words. Sport is a microcosm of the country, in 1994 whilst we were excited about Codesa and other nice discussions about democracy. The white cabal consolidated control of rugby and the economy by assimilating some blacks into their ranks to give them legitimacy.

We see the President has no clothes on under that Springbok sweater and he and the cabal is forever exposed!

Tony Ehrenreich

COSATU Provincial Secretary