Gayton Mckenzie: Sport In South Africa Is Not Run By White People

Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie has blamed black administrators for the slow pace of transformation in some sports in South Africa.

Speaking to Robert Marawa on the Marawa Sports Worldwide show on Thursday 16 January, McKenzie claimed there are many black leaders of sports federations who are scared to take decisions.

When we dont see black people on the cricket field, when we dont see black swimmers, its so easy for us to say, These white people dont want to change,' he said.

Let me tell what the truth is. Sport in this country is not being run by white people. All the presidents of all the federations - Im still to meet one white one.

Its our own people. We are being sold out by our own people and people are scared to say it. They are there, black as us, but they are scared to take decisions.

He cited Cricket South Africa CSA as an example. The CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki is not white. The President of CSA Rihan Richards is not white. I havent seen one white person on the board when they came to see me. We need progressive people to run these things, he claimed.

The CSA Board does have a number of directors who are white.

Gaytone praised Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus for developing a pipeline of new rugby players but was critical of Swimming South Africas leadership.

We do have a lot of black people in positions that are scared. They dont know what to do with power and then we want to complain and blame the white man. The white man is not signing off on the team sheet or hiring the coach, he claimed.

Our people are hiring the coaches and its time we called them out. Im coming for Swimming SA. Theres not one black swimmer - you want to tell me for 30 years we cant even produce one person that qualifies?