ANA claims victory despite botched High Court bid to stop Springboks

03 September 2015 - 12:06 By Sbu Mjikeliso

The Springboks are free to board their flight to the UK for the 2015 Rugby World Cup after the little-known political party Agency for a New Agenda (ANA) dropped its motion to prevent them at the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday. Despite landing on the ear of a sympathetic judge — Judge Moses Mavundla — party president Tshidiso Mokhoanatse arrived ill-prepared and without a visible strategy on how to get the urgent interdict passed.Mavundla first advised Mokhoanatse‚ who sought self-representation‚ that he get legal aid from the bar counsel‚ which was granted by senior counsel Francois Botes.After a two-hour recess‚ ANA returned to file a notice saying it has dropped its wish to have the court “prevent the South African national team from participating in the Rugby World Cup” and to have the team’s passports confiscated.ANA’s gripe was that only eight black players were selected by coach Heyneke Meyer‚ which it said was not representative of the country’s demographics.The party‚ formerly known as South Africa First‚ filed its bid last Friday‚ on the same day Meyer announced his final 31-man squad in Umhlanga‚ Durban.“I’m not sad at all that the Springboks will still be able to go to the World Cup‚” said Mokhoanatse.“It was a tactical move to remove [the rugby transformation agenda] from people who are not doing it.”When asked if the party will support the Springboks‚ Mokhoanatse said: “It is a matter of individual choice to do so or not but we will definitely not.“We still insist that they are not representative of the country but we’ve been given an opportunity to take the matter forward.“Our tactical move was to take the authority of transformation away from government and entrust it with the courts and we have achieved that.“The court must supervise and ensure that transformation happens at the pace that is demanded by our constitution. I’m confident that will happen.”ANA‚ which is made up of former MK Veterans and African National Congress members‚ continued with motion number six of its urgent application‚ which was to have the high court order government to establish a judicial inquiry into the lack of transformation in rugby.Mavundla said there were merits to such an inquiry‚ involving other interested parties‚ and to have the issue regarding the lack of transformation in sport presented to the court at a later‚ unconfirmed‚ date.“It cannot be that transformation‚ 21 years down the line‚ is moving at a snail’s pace‚ in all sectors of society and not only sports‚” Mavundla said.“The sooner the matter gets ventilated in court‚ there will be wisdom that will come out of that judgment that will guide government as to how to proceed with this matter.“The matter is indeed of national interest and national importance and raises the issue of transformation‚ an aspect which this particular court is highly sensitive towards.”But the judge said it wouldn’t be necessary for the matter to be dealt with at the urgent court.Mokhoanatse’s ambiguous and murky strategy‚ and his arrival in court without a lawyer seemingly jeopardised any chance he had of persuading the high court to prevent the Springboks from flying to London.The party leader disagreed.“Not at all‚” Mokhoanatse said.“We always had confidence in our courts that they’ll never allow technical issues to override the rights of citizens that are protected by the courts.“There is no judge who can sit and listen when the rights of people are trampled because of technical issues.“For us this is a victory. There will be a public forum outside government‚ involving the wider community‚ that plays a supervisory role to ensure that transformation happens.” – The Times..

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