On Tuesday, the Congress of South African Trade Unions announced that it plans to picket\u00a0Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.<\/p>\n
The trade federation claimed<\/strong> <\/a>that the primary reason for their protest was DStv’s monopoly over national rugby broadcasting rights in the country, and the lack of freely accessible games broadcast by the SABC.<\/p>\n As it stands, only those with DStv subscriptions and access to SuperSport are able to watch Springbok matches live.<\/p>\n The federation also called for the firing of\u00a0SuperSport pundits, Naas Botha\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Nick Mallett.<\/p>\n “National sports that must inspire the whole nation must be shown live on SABC, as it is a national sport of all the people,” said Cosatu.<\/p>\n “This kind of discrimination will never be allowed in a national soccer match, as the government would step in to ensure it is available live for all citizens.<\/p>\n “This sport has been denied the majority of children in schools because of (the South African Rugby Union) SARU’s bad development programmes and the ministry allows them to get away with it.<\/p>\n “The commentators like Naas Botha and Nick Mallett are outdated and should be replaced. Nick Mallett also has a habit of promoting white players and talking black players down, because he suits the Stellenbosch mafia\u2019s agenda. Mallett should be removed for this racism and clear unbiased reporting of the game.”<\/p>\n Cricket South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n The issue of broadcasting rights was also a serious point of contention in the cricketing world this past week, following reports that Cricket South Africa (CSA) head, Haroon Lorgat, had been sacked over repeated failings to negotiate a broadcasting contract ahead of the upcoming\u00a0Global T20 League.<\/p>\n According to TimesLive<\/a><\/strong>, the rights negotiations between the two parties had became so strained that\u00a0SuperSport representatives walked out of a meeting.<\/p>\n The dispute arose around whether SuperSport was entitled to the Global T20 League broadcasting rights under its current agreement, which it claimed was an “all-rights” deal.<\/p>\n With\u00a0Lorgat now gone, on Wednesday the Mercury<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0reported that at least some portion of the Global T20 League will be shown on free-to-air television.<\/p>\n Cricket SA\u2019s acting chief executive, Thabang Moroe, said the details of what would be shown on free-to-air television channels, were still being finalised.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say yet whether it will be just highlights or if there\u2019ll be a couple of live matches, we are still discussing that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t even needed to make SuperSport aware of the importance of the tournament being on free-to-air television, they understood that already.\u201d<\/p>\n The exact size of the financial package is also still being discussed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been very challenging, we basically had to start negotiations (regarding the broadcast deal for the GLT20) afresh,\u201d Moroe said.<\/p>\n Forced changes\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While DStv is unlikely to feel the effects of Cosatu protests and the loss of some cricket matches to the SABC, it has also been placed squarely in the firing line of government and regulators.<\/p>\n