PRETORIA: South Africa’s sports minister has joined public calls for the Proteas to boycott the Champions Trophy game against Afghanistan next month and criticized the International Cricket Council for not upholding its own rules.
Gayton McKenzie said on Thursday he felt “morally bound to support” a match boycott because the Taliban government has banned women’s sport and disbanded the national women’s cricket team.
“It is not for me as the sports minister to make the final decision on whether South Africa should honor cricketing fixtures against Afghanistan. If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen,” McKenzie said in a statement.
“As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done toward women anywhere in the world.”
The Proteas are scheduled to play Afghanistan on Feb. 21 in a group match in Karachi, Pakistan.
England was also urged to forfeit its match against Afghanistan on Feb. 26 by more than 160 UK politicians on Monday.
McKenzie believed the ICC was also being hypocritical for not upholding its own mandates that member nations develop men’s and women’s cricket.
McKenzie noted Sri Lanka Cricket was suspended by the ICC from November 2023 to January 2024 for government interference.
“This does not happen in the case of Afghanistan, suggesting that political interference in the administration of sport is being tolerated there,” McKenzie said.
“Cricket South Africa, the federations of other countries and the ICC will have to think carefully about the message the sport of cricket wishes to send the world,and especially the women in sports.
“I hope that the consciences of all those involved in cricket, including the supporters, players and administrators, will take a firm stand in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan.”

PESHAWAR: A group of armed men on Thursday abducted more than a dozen people working on “atomic and mining projects” in Lakki Marwat, a highly volatile district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a police official said.
Lakki Marwat is situated on the edge of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has frequently targeted police precincts and checkpoints, killing several law enforcement personnel in the past.
Pakistani authorities have often accused the Afghan administration in Kabul of aiding TTP militants in their cross-border attacks, an allegation Afghanistan denies.
Speaking to Arab News, Shahid Marwat, the district’s police spokesperson, said armed men kidnapped “17 civilians,” including the driver of the team working on the mining project.
“This unfortunate incident took place on Dara Tang Road this morning,” he said. “The kidnapped individuals worked on atomic energy's mining projects. A heavy police contingent has also been dispatched to locate the kidnappers.”
Marwat did not share further details, but the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), a government agency responsible for the nuclear energy program, operates mining projects in various parts of the country.
Lakki Marwat has been a hotspot of militant activity that witnessed unprecedented protests last September, when police officers, joined by civil society members and tribal elders, staged sit-ins and blocked the Indus Highway.
The demonstrations followed a spate of militant attacks that killed several policemen, prompting members of the force to demand greater involvement and autonomy in counterterrorism operations.
While no group has officially claimed responsibility for the incident, some media outlets reported the TTP acknowledged its involvement.
Riaz Bangash, a Peshawar-based expert on the region’s security affairs, told Arab News the incident had raised serious questions about the state’s writ in the province.
“The southern districts of KP are totally neglected and are at the mercy of criminals amid vanishing government writ,” he said. “This is despite the fact that at this time all three top provincial officials, including the chief minister, governor, and inspector general of police, belong to these districts. Still, the region is in chaos.”
Bangash emphasized the importance of avoiding politicization of the region’s security issues and urged all political parties to unite and work out a joint strategy to address the “growing insecurity.”
This is not the first time such kidnappings have taken place in the region.
Last June, unidentified gunmen abducted 13 laborers from the southern Tank district of KP, who were later released. In November, armed men also abducted seven policemen from a check post in the northwestern district of Bannu, who were released after mediation by tribal elders.
So far, the government has not issued a statement about the incident.