truebluefan

Makhenkesi, formerly a strong supporter of the concept, announced his government's change of heart in Pretoria last night.

"Quotas are out," Stofile said unambiguously. "Let us now put our resources into the development of talent. Quotas were used only for window-dressing for international consumption. Those who have the money go and buy the players, instead of developing the boys where they are. The government are not going to decide who must be on the team. All we are saying is: expose everybody, give them an opportunity."

The announcement will be music to the ears of South African rugby fans who had feared the break-up of their World Cup-winning team in the months and years ahead.

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Melon

This certainly is great, however in the years to come I feel there will be a push from certain parties for quotas to be reintroduced and unfortunately I think this decision will be reversed. But then again, South Africa may continue to grow in all areas including in terms of racial acceptance (both intolerance and that other people can be trusted to not be racist...that being, people believing selectors carry no racial bias)

Angelica

I think they just stopped calling it the quota system. Race quotas still play a huge role in SA rugby and it will only increase as time goes by.

Personally I believe that if a player is good, no matter what colour his skin, he should be granted the opportunity to play. If a player is selected just because of the colour of his skin, I believe that is racist. But then again, that is not how everybody is seeing it unfortunately.

I supported many selections for black players in the past. I absolutely love Habanna, as he is a great player and deserves to be selected. There are several black players I couldn't say the same of.