FreedomToPlay: FAN tackles racism in Blue Bulls Primary Schools rugby
The Freedom Advocacy Network (FAN) has, as part of its FreedomToPlay campaign sent a formal request for access to information to the Blue Bulls Primary Schools Rugby Association as well as the Blue Bulls Company regarding a recent announcement that they will implement a stringent racial quota for their under 12 and under 13 teams. In an attorney’s letter, FAN asks how the Blue Bulls Company justifies the racial classification of players in light of the South African Constitution championing non-racialism and equality.
In its request, FAN demands the Blue Bulls Company and its affiliates to disclose all adopted policies relating to racial quotas and seeks clarity on the scope of these quotas.
Non-racialism, as enshrined in the Constitution, is a key priority for FAN and the best data and research show that a vast majority of South Africans find common ground on this issue. The South African youth of today should no longer be shackled to the mistakes of the past – a past they bear no responsibility for. Getting racial discrimination and division out of sport is crucial to achieving the free and prosperous non-racial country that ordinary and decent South Africans hope and work for.
Says Tiego Thotse, operations and advocacy manager at the Freedom Advocacy Network: “It is abhorrent that young children who were born in 2009, more than 15 years after the inception of our non-racial constitutional dispensation, are still subjected to the atrocious practice of being judged and treated according to the colour of their skin. There is nothing so disgraceful as a system blatantly keeping racism alive, forcing a new generation to endure the indignity of racial classification and being told that human worth and talent depends on skin colour.”
“Clinging to the corrosive divisions of the past is something FAN and the people of South Africa will not allow,” adds Thotse.
The Blue Bulls Company and Blue Bulls Primary Schools Rugby Association has until mid-June to respond to FAN’s request for access to information.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Tiego Thotse, FAN Operations and Advocacy Manager
Cell: +27 68 092 3035
Email: tiego@f-an.net
