The Non Racial Sports Bodies

But the struggle inside South Africa for non-racial sport continued. There are now non-racial sports organisations in all major sports (including rugby, cricket, tennis, swimning). They have very large memberships and some outstanding sportsmen amongst their ranks. They are all members of the non-racial South Africa Council of Sport, established in 1970 to protect and coordinate those struggling for non-racial sport.

This after all is no more and no less than what exists in every other country in the world. It is no more and no less than the implementation of the Olympic principles of sport, which spell out in unequivocal terms that there should be no racial discrimination in sport.

How much support do the non-racial bodies enjoy. The short answer is that the majority of black and coloured sportsmen support non-racial sport. Hundreds of thousands belong to the various non-racial bodies. With all the cards stacked against them, the non-racial sporting bodies are flourishing.

It is also clear that the majority of blacks and coloureds in the country, whether they are sportsmen or not, support the struggle of the non-racial sporting bodies.

It is worth remembering that Basil d'Oliveira, a Cape Town boy, was once a national hero to black and coloureds, and on his first visit home a few years ago he received as close to a ticker tape welcome as Cape Town could manage. Yet when he became involved in Colin Cowdrey's cricket tour of South Africa he was shunned during his visit. The extreme unpopularity of his willingness to play in a team which would play against segregated racially selected teams was made quite clear to him, and he dropped his plans. If that could happen to someone of d'Oliveira's prestige then there is clearly widespread belief in and support for the non-racial principles of sport.

The response of the South African Government, white South African sports bodies to the non-racial page 11 bodies provides the clearest evidence of South Africa's committment to racist sport.