Tutu jumps on quota bandwagon
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu says South Africa deserves to have a Springbok team representative of its rainbow nation.
"Now, nearly 20 years later, I lament the tortoise pace at which transformation at the highest level is being effected," he said in a letter to the Independent group of newspapers.
Tutu criticised the SA Rugby Union for the pace of transformation in the team, and said it was "particularly hurtful" to see the selection of black players as "peripheral squad members never given the chance to settle down and earn their spurs."
He said the country deserved a team that represented the "full spectrum of the rainbow that defines us".
"Surely, by the 20th anniversary of our freedom from enforced separateness, there are a couple of dark horses out there to run with the browns and the chestnuts in feature races?"
On Saturday, the Springboks take on Argentina in Salta in the Rugby Championship.
Their starting 15 will include four coloured players (Cornal Hendricks, Damian de Allende, Bryan Habana and Gurthrö Steenkamp), and the remaining 11 are white.
Two of the eight players on the bench are black.
SAPA
