Rian was left with no choice

Talk radio can prove fascinating listening for those who want to learn about the psyche of the people who make up a nation. But this past week reminded me of things about the so-called white part of our nation that I would rather not know.

The week started off with the target being Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Almost to a man, the white listenership were happy to damn Zuma and pronounce him guilty. It didn't matter to them that he had not gone on trial.

But while they were happy with trial by media in Zuma's case, it was a different story when rugby Springbok Geo Cronjé went into the dock. Out came the moral outrage: "How can you condemn this man without knowing all the facts?"

Nothing wrong with that, except that these same people don't appear to apply the same principle when it is a black South African on the receiving end.

And wasn't it remarkable how all these people who claimed not to know the full facts were so quick to dream up their own reasons for Cronjé's actions?

The pearl was the one about hygiene. Yes, we live in the new South Africa, but the old South African bigotry still exists. For the record, the "white" Western Province players who have roomed with Davids over the years find any insinuation along these lines completely laughable.

Even more laughable, or maybe just pathetic, was the explanation that the whole controversy grew out of provincialism. Presumably then Cronjé hates Davids because he comes from Cape Town and plays for WP. If that pathetic explanation has any truth to it at all then I am glad Cronjé is not in the side.

Then came the idiotic accusation, which took on semi-official form, that WP had hatched a conspiracy to get Davids into the team and Cronjé out of it.

That might make sense if it were not for the fact that WP's main business at the moment is winning the Currie Cup, which they have a much better chance of doing now that Davids is available.

Talking of Davids, why have so many turned him into a villain? I heard a white caller suggesting that what Cronjé should really have done was share the room with Davids and then when he was not looking, flush his head in the toilet. For goodness sake!

To all of those out there who are saying that people don't know the real Geo Cronjé, here is a question: Do you know Quinton Davids? Those who do, know him as a shy, honest, humble and unassuming man who had just one dream other than his desire to feed his family and make them comfortable, and that was to play for South Africa at this World Cup.

The Boks may deny it, but excluding him from the squad once it was decided Cronjé would not be going does smack of a punishment being meted out to the victim. Danie Rossouw was not one of the 40 names from which Straeuli said his 30 would come and he has not played any meaningful rugby since the extended squad was chosen.

So if you feel sorry for Cronjé, you have to feel sorry for Davids too. He is not the trouble-making sort, yet acquaintances of his tell me the traumatised lock was subject to plenty of verbal abuse in the streets of Pretoria last Friday night.

While I don't find that surprising, I do find it unsettling. This is not the sort of thing that makes me proud to be a South African.

Some of the attempts to rubbish the initial story have fallen way short of the mark. For instance, that Davids and Cronjé did end up sharing a room after all is hardly relevant in this instance if the reason they ended up doing so was because they were forced to do so.

At the end of the day, there was a specific allegation made, and that specific allegation was something SA Rugby/Sarfu were duty-bound to deal with.

The real issue here, and the Bok management and some of my journalistic colleagues should take particular note of this, is not who leaked the story (one hack is said to have even phoned the WP team manager to accuse him of doing so).

The issue is racism in rugby, and it is an important one, not least because this is not the first time such an issue has surfaced.

Hard though those at the top are working to transform the game, racism still exists across many different levels and takes many different forms. It is a disgrace, for instance, that a union like WP cannot field more than two black players in their team at any given time.

No-one who read Chester Williams' book would have been surprised that the latest controversy happened. My own initial cynical view was that at least this time we won't have to wait for a book to be published.

And Williams is probably a good guy to talk to if you don't agree that disaffected players fear talking out, which explains why teams always manage to close ranks every time something like the latest incident comes to light.

Williams, the darling of the 1995 Springbok World Cup campaign, waited until his career was over before blowing the lid on what he perceived to be the racist attitudes of his former "One Team, One Nation" teammates.

None of this is to say that I believe Cronjé is guilty. You are innocent until proven guilty, and SA Rugby have not managed to do that.

But the failure to find "conclusive evidence" does not for one second mean that the investigation should not have happened. An allegation was made, and it was of a serious enough nature to be dealt with as a matter of extreme urgency.

SA Rugby managing director Rian Oberholzer was therefore 100% correct to launch an investigation and he was also correct to suspend Cronjé from the camp pending the results of that investigation.

Those who would somehow now like to make Oberholzer the villain in all of this are way off beam. To my mind, Oberholzer is one of the few people who have emerged from this mess with any credit.

As one who was starting to doubt it, I was pleased this week to receive such a reminder of why Oberholzer may be indispensible. For he does appear to be the only white rugby administrator in this country who has genuinely sold himself, heart and mind, to the principles of transformation.

Many would like to take Oberholzer down on the grounds that it was he who brought the word race into the public domain. Would it not, or so his detractors would argue, have been better if it had all just been kept as an internal matter?

My answer to that is that the Boks might have been able to do that had Rudolf Straeuli followed the precedent he himself had set in the Lukas van Biljon instance a week earlier by suspending Cronjé immediately rather than waiting five days.

A statement at that time could have been issued saying he was being investigated for a disciplinary infraction and race need only have been introduced into the public statements if he was found guilty.

But after sitting on it for five days, the management left Oberholzer with no option but to announce publicly what the investigation was about.

The incident demanded a serious response and making the players run up and down a koppie was no way to deal with the issue. After all, Straeuli is supposed to be a rugby coach, not a staff-seargent.