Embattled S. African Rugby Union Wins Ruling

The South African Rugby Football Union won a bitterly contested court case Friday against the black-led South African government when a judge ruled that an investigation of the organization was unjustified.

Pretoria Supreme Court Justice William de Villiers gave no reasons for his decision to nullify an order by President Nelson Mandela to set up a rugby commission of inquiry. The government panel was to investigate allegations of racism, financial mismanagement and nepotism in the mostly white rugby union, which has come under heavy attack for excluding blacks and players of mixed race from the popular sport.

Mandela’s office said the president will appeal the case.

Meanwhile, the government said it will honor the court ruling and will not go forward with the investigation.

Mandela’s ruling African National Congress condemned the court decision as “a setback for the transformation of rugby in South Africa” and called on rugby officials to voluntarily submit themselves to a public review.

“If [the union] has nothing to hide from the public, then it should have no opposition to such a commission,” an ANC spokesman said.

Rugby union President Louis Luyt, who has been the main target of critics, hailed the court ruling as a “victory for the rule of law.”

Luyt argued that the government has no jurisdiction over the rugby union, an independent organization representing rugby associations across the country.

But in his first public concession, Luyt promised Friday to allow unnamed “international independent auditors” to look into “each and every of the unsubstantiated innuendoes and accusations” involving the union’s Johannesburg-area operations that prompted Mandela’s call for the commission.

Luyt said the union’s executive board will meet this weekend to also consider a broader internal review.

“It is my intention to propose that action be taken to similarly investigate [the union’s central administration] and all of its other affiliated unions with the view to prove once and for all that rugby has nothing to hide,” Luyt said.

But it is unlikely the self-directed review will satisfy the National Sports Council, a voluntary organization promoting non-racialism in South African sports. The sports council says organized rugby remains largely unchanged from the apartheid-era of racial separation.

In the latest embarrassment for the sport, a prominent white South African player participating in a tournament in New Zealand was ordered home Thursday and faces a disciplinary hearing next week for insulting a black woman in a New Zealand bar. Springbok player Toks van der Linde allegedly used a racial slur to describe Bernardine Oram.

In an effort to loosen the white grip on the game, the sports council demanded last month that the union’s leadership resign before April 11 or face several punitive measures, including an international boycott of its teams. After a last-minute meeting with union officials, the deadline was extended to May 7.

“Failure to comply will see the [sports council] putting into effect action agreed upon at the last council meeting,” said Mvuzo Mbebe, the council’s chief executive.

“The outcome of today’s court hearing is not an indication that there are no problems in rugby and that it will now be business as usual.”