SARU: Statement by Oregan Hoskins

The following is a statement of apology which has today been issued by the President of the South African Rugby Union Oregan Hoskins:

The debate in New Zealand around the non-selection of Maori players for tours of South Africa prompted considerable discussion within our union.

A number of Maori rugby players became innocent victims of the racist ideology of our former government, a policy that oppressed the daily lives of all black South Africans.

Those policies also denied thousands of talented black sportsmen and women the opportunity to compete for selection for South Africa's national sports teams.

As the current guardians of the game of rugby union it is therefore appropriate that we take this opportunity to apologise to those Maori players who may have been excluded from selection and to the offence this may have caused to the Maori community.

But, even more importantly, this is the opportunity to apologise on behalf of rugby to black South Africans who were denied the opportunity to represent not only their country but also their provinces throughout those long dark years because of the connivance of our predecessors in the systematic suppression of the majority.

We also acknowledge that there were white players who identified with the struggle for non-racialism and who suffered as a result of the international ban.

The current South African Rugby Union came into being in 1992 as the first governing body representative of all South Africans. We have striven to cast off the shadow of rugby's racially divisive past since then. This acknowledgement of the mistakes of our predecessors and apology for our sport's culpability is another step in attempting to lift that shadow.