When Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that South African sporting bodies that had failed to hit transformation targets would be barred from hosting national events, racial redress in sport was thrown back into the national spotlight. One of the affected parties was the South African Rugby Union (SARU) – and unsurprisingly so.
When Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that South African sporting bodies that had failed to hit transformation targets would be barred from hosting national events, racial redress in sport was thrown back into the national spotlight. One of the affected parties was the South African Rugby Union (SARU) – and unsurprisingly so.
After all, white South Africans – who account for 8.9% of South Africa’s population- occupied 23 of the 31 positions in previous Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer’s 2015 World Cup squad.
A national transformation coalition is spearheading the calls for SARU to accelerate development and racial integration in rugby. One of their vocal members is Rhodes University’s high performance league rugby coach and Alumni Relations & Fundraising manager, Qondakele Sompondo.
Sompondo is a former player himself and started playing as a teenager as an outside center, before moving to fullback. He played for his hometown club, Red Lion RFC; PE Technikon (where his interest in Rugby blossomed); and Motherwell RFC (where he played the majority of his rugby).
His playing career reached a high point when he represented Eastern Province’s Presidents XV (a developmental side) and Merit A Team (a side made up of the province’s best club players) in 1999 and 2000 respectively.
He began his coaching career with Motherwell in 2003, before rising up the ranks and even taking charge of the Eastern Province U19 side between 2007 and 2011.
In the same year his time with the U19 provincial team ended, he started non-profit organisation Grassroots Rugby after experiencing what he termed “black burnout” – an absence of black rugby stories on all media platforms within South Africa.
He criticised the media for focusing on competitions such as Super Rugby; FNB Schools; the Currie Cup; and the Varsity cup – which are mainly white in terms of representation, while paying little attention to rugby tournaments dominated by players of colour.
“The focus [of Grassroots Rugby]has always been on addressing racial inequalities. The issue of class is slowly creeping in now… Rugby is played predominantly in [historically]white schools… The poorest of the poor are left are left to kick stones in the community school without even a rugby ball,” said Sompondo.
Grassroots Rugby’s mission is to showcase rugby development in South Africa's townships and rural areas – thus accelerating the development of players of colour. Sompondo described the reception the project has received as “phenomenal”.
Grassroots Rugby has its own website and a combined following of 3300 on Facebook and Twitter. Sompondo uses these outlets to share coverage of all major club rugby tournaments within the Eastern Cape: the Super 12; the Nonkobe Heritage tournament; and the EPRU and Border rugby leagues.
It has a partnership with the International Exchange rugby programme run by Richard De Jager and the South African Rugby Union (SARU). Grassroots Rugby is thus able to offer players of colour from the Eastern Cape the chance to hone their skills in the United Kingdom.
Sompondo has also been at the helm of the Rhodes first team since 2012 and is aiming to take them to new heights by qualifying for the Varsity Shield. He credited Rhodes for creating a space where he has “not once experienced racism” as a black rugby coach.
Although Mbalula came under criticism for his decision to ban several national sporting bodies from hosting international events, Sompondo argued that this decision could be “viewed from two sides”.
According to him, the rugby team’s failure to reach first place in the world rankings and their losses against less fancied opposition such as Scotland and Japan prove that previous Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer did not select his teams based on merit.
However, Sompondo is on personal terms with newly appointed Springbok coach Allister ‘Toetie’ Coetzee – and claimed that his vast experience (including two Currie Cup triumphs in 2012 and 2014) made him the “best coach on merit” to lead the national team.
After Coetzee included 12 players of colour in his first Springbok squad, which was announced on 28 May, Sompondo posted a status on Grassroots Rugby’s Facebook page hailing what he described as “a merit Springbok selection for the first time in 125 years”.
As the eyes of the nation turn upon Grahamstown-born Coetzee – eager to see whether or not he can transform the Springbok team over a sustained period of time – Sompondo will continue fighting from his home province for redress in rugby, not just in the national team, but in the whole of South Africa.
