The DAs decision to join the SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) and SA Jewish Board of Deputies in pushing for the reinstatement of David Teeger as the South African Under-19 cricket squad captain, has been labelled a racist defence of white privilege in sport.
DA spokesperson for sport, arts and culture, Veronica van Dyk, yesterday said the party has written to the International Cricket Council (ICC), demanding to know whether Cricket South Africa (CSA) provided it with adequate reasons for its decision to drop the Jewish squad captain and appoint Juan James as skipper for the U19 Cricket World Cup, currently under way in the country.
The DA this week also issued CSA with a letter of demand that if the body did not reinstate Teeger by tomorrow, it would approach the SA Human Rights Commission.
Teeger angered pro-Palestine groups when he said at the Absa Jewish Achiever Rising Star awards in October: “Yes, I’ve been [given] this award, and, yes, I'm now the Rising Star, but the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel.”
CSA removed Teeger as captain last week, citing the “risk that could result in conflict or even violence, including between rival groups of protesters” during the tournament.
The SAZF on Wednesday demanded that CSA issue a formal apology and reinstate Teeger as captain, saying it launched a petition that has so far garnered almost 50 000 signatures.
Rowan Polovin, national chairman of the SAZF says: “The Teeger case has shown how the South African government’s vilification of the Jewish State has led directly to actions against Jews who stand up for it. Anti-Zionism bleeds fast into anti-Semitism.”
He adds: “The CSA’s rationale, citing security concerns, appears increasingly unfounded and is most likely politically motivated.”
ANC Western Cape MPL, Khalid Sayed, said the DA’s stance of opposing CSA’s decision was unsurprising.
He said James hailed from a club that had a legacy of non-racial sport participation, and he should be supported.
Sayed says: “Primrose is a black club. It is a club from the community that has a legacy within the non-racial sporting fraternity, and Juan James comes from such a club – a grassroots club.
“That’s where the relevance is, because it shows that the SA Zionist Federation and the DA are defenders of white privilege.
“Further than just wanting to defend Teeger, they also do not want to see a person from a club set in non-racial cricketing traditions to come through because products of those clubs are deemed by these elements in society to be incompetent.”
Good Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the DA was abusing the Saga involving Teeger at a crucial time in his career.
Herron says: “The DA is disgracefully trying to score political points by creating a victim of a young man who has himself not said he regards himself as a victim.“It is even more disgraceful that the young man is being victimised at a critical point of his career, with a junior world cup looming – instead of being allowed to get on with it.
“If the captain of the national junior cricket team made statements about supporting Palestine, security threats or not, the self-same DA would be... calling for his expulsion.”
“Teeger made an error, Cricket South Africa dealt with the matter, now he should be allowed to play cricket,” said Herron.
francesca.villette@inl.co.za