Madam Speaker, yesterday the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation met with the chief executive officer of the 2010 Fifa Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan, and representatives of host cities, namely the eThekweni, Nelson Mandela, Mbobela and Mangaung Municipalities.
The meeting was productive and illustrated the tremendous progress made in preparing for the hosting of the Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup. Challenges were identified and are in the process of being addressed by the relevant government departments.
Unfortunately, this good news has been ignored in an Afrikaans newspaper article that aims to deliberately distort and mislead sections of our community. In an article written by a journalist who attended only part of the meeting, certain statements are attributed to ANC members of the committee. At no stage was mention made that rugby supporters in general are criminals or that rugby must be banned from stadiums. In fact, the ANC members encouraged the new stadiums to become multipurpose centres of integration, used by soccer and rugby. A call was also made for rugby administrators to deal decisively with individuals who engage in racist criminal acts at matches.
We will continue to highlight instances of racism where black people are attacked and assaulted at rugby matches by racist thugs, and where certain stadiums and facilities are not accessible for use by the majority of our people.
The ANC study groups and the ANC reject this malicious article with the contempt it deserves. Thank you. [Applause.]