South Africa: Sport and Apartheid Politics

Abstract

In South Africa, sports policy is a direct reflec tion of a political system which is based on the systematic exclusion of nonwhites from full membership in all of that society's institutions—including sport. This system, desig nated as apartheid, exists in no other nation, even those with high levels of political oppression. Despite severe sanctions from the international sport community, including expulsion from the Olympics and the withdrawal of competition, apartheid continues relatively unabated in South African society. South African sport officials assert that their system is changing and that there are no color barriers. This may be true on paper or in public forums, but it is not true in practice. Both in and outside of South Africa, protesting groups have been active in seeking equality but their efforts have not produced significant results. South Africa's ideological and cultural traditions reinforce secondary citizen status for nonwhites. To change these attitudes will take considerably more action than has been demonstrated thus far.