November 08, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 26, 1428

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 7: South African sport has ditched the contentious quota system which required a particular number of non-white players in teams. Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile declared that the focus will switch to helping black athletes by investing upwards of £15 million a year. “Quotas are out,” he said. “We are not going to decide who must be on the team. All we are saying is expose everybody, give them an opportunity.”

The shift in strategy seems to have been prompted by South Africa’s success in the rugby World Cup last month. There were claims that a strict implementation of quotas would enfeeble the side in the future and make another such victory unlikely.

Stofile, who has been persistently backing quotas, acknowledged the experiment had failed but maintained black sporting success stories could still happen with the correct funding.

“Quotas were used only for window dressing for international consumption,” he explained. “We must kill the myth that black people cannot play certain sporting codes because they are black. Let us put our resources into the development of talent.” –Agencies