Bid to halt Boks’ World Cup abandoned
The Agency for New Agenda has abandoned its court bid to halt the Springboks’ participation in the World Cup.
|||Pretoria – Despite abandoning its court bid which sought to halt the Springboks’ participation at the Rugby World Cup, the Agency for New Agenda (ANA) political party insisted on Wednesday it had scored a significant victory.
“We are very pleased with the outcome. The relief we sought from the court - to stop the Springboks, to have the Springboks surrender their passports - was a tactical move. At times when you fight, you pitch the demands so high but with a specific objective of achieving certain things,” ANA president Edward Mokhoanatse told reporters in Pretoria.
“Our strategy was based on one thing – to indicate to the courts that the government and Saru (SA Rugby Union) have had 21 years, within which they have failed to transform rugby. The judge has ordered a structural interdict to say certain things have to be pursued from the perspective of the courts. We have succeeded in taking away the responsibility of transformation in rugby from government and we have put it on the lap of our high courts.”
Mokhoanatse said his organisation’s primary target was not preventing the Springboks – one of the favourites at the tournament – from taking part in the Rugby World Cup, to be hosted in England.
“The judge has invited the broader community to engage and come up with a suitable solution so that we can fast-track transformation in sport, in rugby particularly. The judge agreed with us that 21 years is a very long period and he indicated that it cannot be expected that the people are going to wait any longer. We are no longer going to be shouting at government and (Sports) Minister (Fikile) Mbalula. The matter is now with competent instruments in our Constitution, the courts,” said Mokhoanatse.
“The matter is still ongoing. Counsel for both applicants and respondents are going to have to sit down, come up with a proposal and go back to the courts to present that to the judge. The judge will make it (the agreed proposal) an order of court and from hence, transformation will start to take a different direction.”
The little-known political party sought an urgent order from the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to compel the SA Rugby Union and the department of sport to surrender the Springboks’ passports so they would not travel to the global showpiece set for next month.
On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Ntendeya Mavundla stood the matter down as ANA opted for a broader discussion of the transformation issue that included government and the broader public.
African News Agency