SA at loggerheads on quotas
Ngconde Balfour urged the United Cricket Board (UCB) to read a government-sponsored report into the matter and re-assess its decision to scrap quotas in the first-class game.
But after threats of disruption to the 2003 World Cup, the board committed to select five black players in the national squad.
Balfour said there was no way he could not endorse the report, released on Thursday, which said the decision to scrap race quotas "requires urgent and fundamental reconsideration."
It recommended that quotas be reinstated with increased "transformation targets".
Dispute
Balfour told South African parliament he would not demand the country's cricket authorities comply with the report's recommendations.
"I want to persuade the UCB to read the report," he said. "This is not about forcing - there is no reason to do that. We want to reach a consensus.
"Yes, I'm tough and speak my mind but that's because in some villages in this country where cricket is played people are still asking, 'Why are you letting us down?'.
"There is no way I cannot endorse what is in this report. It is a report that I myself commissioned.
"Maybe there are one or two recommendations we can do some juggling on."
UCB president Percy Sonn, though, took issue with the committee that compiled the report.
"UCBSA disagrees with the terms of reference and the composition of the committee," Sonn said in a statement.
"The problems the UCBSA foresaw compromised any findings the committee may make."