Pioneering South African rugby pioneer Ebrahim Patel dies

Pioneering South African rugby administrator Ebrahim Patel, who reunited the racially segregated sport at the end of apartheid, has died after suffering a stroke.

Patel was 78.

Patel was the first president of the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) and one of the driving forces behind uniting rugby after the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990.

He breathed his last on Monday.

For almost a century, separate bodies were governing the white, mixed-race, and black players owing to racial division in South Africa.

Patel worked tirelessly to bring together the white South African Rugby Board (SARB), the non-racial South African Rugby Union (SARU), the South African Rugby Football Federation (SARFF), and the South African Rugby Association (SARA) to form SARFU in 1992, with himself and long-serving chief of the white union, Danie Craven, as joint presidents initially.

In a tribute, Mark Alexander, the current President of SA Rugby, described Patel as a ''pioneer of non-racial rugby''.

Patel was lauded for his reconciliatory efforts as he painstakingly convinced players who had been debarred from the national side that they needed to be patient as the transformation to one national non-racial union took place.

''(Patel's) contribution to the game here in South Africa is on par with some of the greatest administrators we've ever had, and it was a remarkable achievement to bring all rugby communities together after so many years of division,'' said Alexander.

''He served the game at so many levels – as secretary, spokesman, and later president. He met with representatives of the erstwhile SA Rugby Board and exiled leaders of the ANC, who were then still a banned organization, in London, Lusaka, and Harare.

''He worked incredibly hard to bring about unity and will forever be remembered as one of the kingpins of the game in South Africa, but also globally, as he also served on the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby).'' 

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