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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 9. 1ts May 1973

673 Foreign Sportsmen duped

673 Foreign Sportsmen duped

There are two important lessons for opponents of apartheid to draw from the South African Games.

Firstly the Games proved to be nothing more than a gigantic public relations exercise designed to fool the world into thinking that the racist Government is prepared to allow sport to be played and organised on genuinely multi-racial lines in South Africa. David Leitch's report in the New Statesman from Pretoria showed that the South African whites were prepared to make a considerable effort to make the Games a success by compromising a few of their prejudices.

The fact that 673 foreign athletes and officials were induced to make the trek to Pretoria for the Games shows how successful the South African regime's poisonous propaganda was in fooling people. No doubt many of these athletes and officials will like Stan Wright of the U.S.A mateur Athletics Union, make negative reports to their national and international sports organizations, but Vorster will still make political capital out of their participation.

Secondly the Games showed that the South African Government had not changed its sports policy at all. The only non-white South African bodies which were allowed to participate were stooge organisations, while groups organised on multi-racial lines were excluded. 'Multi-national' sport in South Africa is a sham and the South African Government only uses it to gain international support for apartheid. We must not let them succeed.