South African sport has ditched the controversial quota system which demanded a certain number of non-white players in teams.

Makhenkesi Stofile, the sports minister, announced that the focus will switch to helping black athletes by investing upwards of £15 million a year. "Quotas are out," he said. "We are not going to decide who must be on the team. All we are saying is expose everybody, give them an opportunity."

The change in policy appears to have been triggered by South Africa's success in the rugby World Cup last month. There were claims that a strict implementation of quotas would weaken the side in the future and make another such success unlikely.

Stofile, who has always been a staunch supporter of quotas, admitted the experiment had failed but insisted black sporting success stories could still take place with the correct funding.

"Quotas were used only for window dressing for international consumption," he explained. "We must kill the myth that black people cannot play certain sporting codes because they are black. Let us put our resources into the development of talent."