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SA could lose its Springboks
From correspondents in Johannesburg
June 22, 2007
SOUTH Africa's Springboks rugby team may soon be renamed if a proposal to scrap its famous emblem is adopted at an upcoming conference of the ruling African National Congress.
Delegates at the ANC's policy conference, which begins on Wednesday, will be asked if they support the idea of having a protea flower as a uniform emblem for all national sports teams.
If the suggestion becomes law, the emblem of a leaping springbok would have to be removed from the national team's famous gold and green rugby shirts.
Cedrick Frolick, an ANC lawmaker who sits on the Parliament's sports committee, said that the use of a common emblem would encourage nation-building in the post-apartheid era.
“It's not only about the Springbok emblem but about uniform colours for all national teams in the interest of nation building,” Frolick told the Afrikaans language newspaper Die Volksblad.
“Some teams do not look like South African teams when they're on the field.
"The soccer team have a different strip every time they play.
“It has been decided twice that the protea should be the only national sports emblem.
"The last time was in 1998. Talks about the application will now begin in earnest."
The move would not affect the Bafana Bafana national football team which does not have a specific emblem, while the cricket squad has already adopted the protea as its hallmark.
The rugby authorities had hoped they had faced down the threat three years ago when former president Nelson Mandela said the springbok emblem should be spared.
The ANC and South African Rugby Union have frequently locked horns, with members of the governing party complaining about the continued dearth of black players in the national team 13 years on from the end of whites-only rule.
Agence France-Presse
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