South Africa: Rising through the Dark years
It is the time for celebration for a country that has seen many dark years, amid the apartheid era, a country that has lived through enormous challenges and yet maintained its passion for sports. It is a testament of their spirit that today the South Africans are ready to host the football World cup after languishing in exile for years. They say that sport is a great leveler and there is no better example than this! For many years, South Africa's apartheid policy meant that the country was outlawed from the Olympics and many other international sports.
Now, after a decade of democracy, the Gods of the most popular sport in the world are smiling at them. Although legal segregation had been the rule in the rainbow nation since 1948, they remained regular participants in international sports until the start of the sixties.
The International Olympic Committee subsequently took its first punitive action by withdrawing the Republic's invitation to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Apartheid hit the international headlines with the massacre of 67 people in the black township of Sharpeville in 1967. South Africa was initially suspended from the membership of Football’s governing body, FIFA in 1961.
Two years later, Sir Stanley Rous, the newly elected FIFA president, opposed the suspension and lifted the ban, arguing that it could result in the game being plunged into depths of despair, especially since it was the favorite sport of the black population.
But the joy was short lived. As the South Africans were preparing to send a squad of black players to the 1966 World Cup, the suspension got re-imposed.
The first head-on confrontation between sport and apartheid came in 1968 when cricketer Basil d'Oliveira, a colored South African was included in England's MCC team to a tour of the country. The then prime minister of South Africa, John Vorster accused the MCC of picking "a team of the anti-apartheid movement", and the tour was cancelled. Whilst continuing his support of apartheid, Vorster attempted to get South Africa admitted to the 1968 Summer Olympics by repealing legislation prohibiting multi-racial sports teams.
The IOC, fed up by the non-conforming attitude finally lost patience with South Africa in 1970 and expelled them from the Olympic movement, sparking similar expulsions by many international sports federations.
In 1976, after the Soweto uprising in which over a 100 died, Joao Havelange formally expelled South Africa from FIFA. The Brazilian went on to replace Rous as president in 1974. Throughout the 1980's, against a backdrop of Prime Minister P.W. Botha’s refusal to implement reforms, a number of rebel cricket and rugby tours of South Africa continued to take place. The sportsmen who took the risk of touring the country ended up paying a heavy price, but none more than the three West Indian cricketers, including Alvin Kallicharran. All players were banned for life after a rebel team toured South Africa in 1983.
In 1989, another rebel tour, led by ex-England cricket Captain Mike Gatting, sparked countywide demonstrations and violence, which resulted in the tour being cut short.
However, things began to change politically in August 1989, when Botha, now president, resigned after eleven years in power. F.W. de Klerk replaced him. De Klerk set about the task of dismantling the apartheid system and, in February 1990, he orchestrated the release of the inspirational leader of the black, Nelson Mandela after 28 years in prison.
Subsequently, a historic meeting was held in Harare between African Olympic leaders and South African sports officials. The South Africans back then were asked to work on two pre-conditions for a return to the international arena - the abolition of apartheid laws and the establishment of a racially unified sports structure. After a visit to South Africa by a five-man IOC delegation in March 1991, INOCSA (Interim National Olympic Committee of South Africa) Chairman Sam Ramsamy was able to persuade IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch that South Africa had met conditions required for recognition.
On a day of historic significance for sport in the country, South Africa was banned from the Olympic movement for more than 30 years for its apartheid policies, only to be readmitted on July 9, 1991. The move paved the way for South African participation in the 1992 Barcelona Games where they won two silver medals. Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994. The hugely popular leader quickly saw the value of using sport as a tool to unite the country. He was at the forefront of a trendsetting move of encouraging the whole population to support the previously despised Springboks as they hosted the Rugby World Cup of 1995.
Spurred on by the massive support of their countrymen, the Springboks defeated tournament favorites New Zealand in the final. Mandela depicted the support of the nation by wearing a Springbok shirt, seen by many as a symbolic act. He presented the trophy to a beaming Francois Pienaar, the captain of the team in an act of reconciliation between black and white South Africans. In 2003, the World cup was held in South Africa, where in a stunning anti-climax, the hosts rated amongst the favorites were sent packing out of the event. The controversial rain ruling – the Duckworth and Lewis law – resulted in the elimination of South Africa in the opening round of the tournament. In 2004, another dream was realized, as the rainbow nation completed its return to the top echelon of international sport by winning the rights to host the 2010 Football World Cup.
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