Pieter du Toit

Cape Town – Two leaders of the campaign to have the Springbok emblem abolished received Test tickets, free flights and Springbok clothing worth thousands of rand from SuperSport and the SA Rugby Union last year.

They are Butana Komphela, chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport, and his deputy, Cedric Frolick.

Both are ANC members of parliament and both have been prominent in attacks on the national rugby team’s emblem and the rugby community.

Komphela, who has been reported as having joined Western Province flank Luke Watson by saying he “also wanted to vomit on the Springbok jersey,” last year received an invitation from Saru to attend the World Cup tournament in France.

Saru paid some of the costs of his trip to Paris. It is unclear who paid Frolick’s expenses to attend the tournament and what the purpose of his visit was.

According to parliament’s register of members’ interests, a public document, Frolick, in particular, benefited largely from the generosity of SuperSport and Saru during recent years.

In addition to Springbok clothing he received from Saru, the union twice provided him with return tickets for flights between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, where he lives.

Paid for his accommodation

Thanks to SuperSport he received a business class flight from Johannesburg, via Perth and Sydney, to Wellington in 2006 when the Springboks played against the All Blacks in New Zealand. A ticket such as that now costs over R57 000.

SuperSport paid for his accommodation during that period.

Frolick also received Springbok clothing from Saru in 2006. And in 2005, he received tickets to attend a cricket Test between South Africa and England.

Frolick confirmed on Thursday that he had received Springbok clothing from Saru before the World Cup tournament last year. “I can’t remember if I wore it (in France),” he said.

He was reluctant to reply to questions about Komphela’s recent remarks and he refused to comment on the controversy over the Springbok emblem.

Komphela, he said, had “the right to his opinion, just as anyone else”.

Asked whether he supported Komphela’s view that the Springbok emblem should disappear before the end of the year, Frolick said, “I support the decision that was taken at the sport indaba last week. I am a loyal and disciplined member of the ANC.”

He was unwilling to say whether he thought Komphela’s remarks had made a material contribution to the debate over the Springbok emblem.

He denied, heatedly, that the ANC had hauled Komphela over the coals for his controversial standpoint as was reported in Beeld on Thursday.

Efforts to contact Komphela have been unsuccessful since last week. Despite repeated efforts on Thursday, he could not be reached for comment.