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I will not beg for transformation - Mbalula

Pretoria - Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula says he will not go begging to any sporting federation in order to see transformation taking place in the country.

"I'm not going to have a cup of coffee with anybody and beg them to transform. They have committed to the targets and if they don't meet the targets, we will not support them," Mbalula said on Monday.

He made the statements following his announcement that he had suspended the privileges of SA Rugby, Cricket South Africa and Athletics SA from bidding for international tournaments due to lack of transformation.

"I have resolved to revoke the privilege of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Cricket South Africa (CSA), Netball South Africa (NSA) and South African Rugby (SARU) to host and bid for major and mega international tournaments in the Republic of South Africa as a consequence of the aforementioned federations not meeting their own set transformation targets with immediate effect," he said.

"I will review this decision when considering the results of the 2016/2017 Transformation Barometer."

Mbalula said it was time the transformation process was fast-tracked. He said for the past 20 years the issue of transformation had been put on the back burner and had been reduced to quotas.

He said he had suggested at a sports indaba that the quota system be abolished, but the fraternity was against that idea. He said the time had come for those opposed to transformation to be punished.

"To me, quotas were just being misused to undermine black players on merit to confine them to the bench, because the quotas say we must field three. I said, let's deal with this issue scientifically.

"Tomorrow, even if you can change the minister of sport, the system, the way it is, is unbreakable because there has to be consequences for people going out of their way not to comply with the transformation agenda in South Africa."

Mbalula lashed out at Cricket SA for allegedly claiming that targets agreed upon by all federations were not attainable at senior level.

"I had a bilateral with them to say this is problematic. You mean [Kagiso] Rabada and [Aaron] Phangiso cannot play in the same match because you have your own approach? This is what you committed to," said Mbalula.

He said the country would now wait to see if transformation could be achieved in SA Rugby and he would give new Springbok coach Allister Coetzee an opportunity to implement the necessary transformation changes.

"I'm happy that we are not confronted with any World Cup that we are preparing to go to. We are building now. Building incorporates the aspect of transformation.

"Irrespective of... whether people like or not, we have got to transform based on the scorecards and dimensions that federations have agreed to." 

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