Ebrahim Patel – the IRB's First Black South African in More Than 100 Years

Abstract

Some years ago, South Africa's cricket administration embarked on an official project to recapture its black history, with one of its aims being to ‘make known the icons from communities previously neglected’.1 Rugby in South Africa has not commissioned similar research into the past, and the deeds of some of the icons among its black administrators and players might well be lost to history. This article therefore seeks to explore the contribution made to rugby by Ebrahim Patel who was secretary, spokesman and then president of the non-racial SA Rugby Union during the latter half of the apartheid era. For many years, the white mainstream press projected him as representing a militant organization bent on obstructing South Africa's return to international rugby. From the standpoint of the non-racial game, he performed a key role in isolating the rugby establishment during the apartheid era, prior to switching strategy and leading his people in the unification negotiations. As president of the new united governing body of South African rugby, he became the first black leader to serve on the International Rugby Board.