SPORT and its organisation reflect the society around it, making a mockery of persistent suggestions that sport can or should be apolitical. Thus, in the mid-twentieth century in South Africa it was organised on racially defined lines by custom, although not directly by law. From the late 1940s inter-communal competition commenced among black sportspersons along similar lines to pre-independence India. In the 1950s those divisions began to dissolve: for instance, black cricket turned fully non-racial in 1959.
Government policy and long-standing custom continued to impose a quota on national representative teams: 100% white. But by the early 1970s local and international pressure forced the government to change tack towards so-called multinational sport between groups of ethnically defined South Africans. For the next two decades it used a variety of ploys, in particular tinkering with group areas legislation, to give an illusion of sports reform while apartheid continued to prevail.
It was fifty years ago, in March 1973, that the South African Council on Sport (SACOS) was founded by nine codes under the presidency of Norman Middleton. SACOS was opposed to discrimination; and called for international recognition of non-racial federations, the upliftment of black sport and an end to the permit system. That same year, after South Africa’s ejection from the Olympic movement, the South African Games were held on a multinational basis and included foreign athletes.
The Soweto Uprising was a turning point alongside recognition of SACOS by the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa (SCSA) in December 1976. SACOS was no longer concerned with sport alone, but demanded contextual change: an end to apartheid and the introduction of democracy. The uprising had highlighted the intractable issue of government school sport whose inequitable funding was a national scandal. South Africa’s international sports relations were now hostage to SACOS influence exercised through the SCSA.
In 1978 SACOS published a normal sport charter that featured single non-racial federations, the outlawing of racially exclusive clubs, and the integration of all school and youth sport. This echoed the famous slogan: ‘no normal sport in an abnormal society’. Resolve was stiffened by the double standards resolution that forbade any form of participation in race-based sport (although this created problems for returnees who had been lured away by white sports bodies). And there was increased involvement in boycott campaigns around Simba and Fattis & Monis; as well as black local government elections.
Bizarrely, SACOS was accused of politicising sport and its officials were labelled ‘sports terrorists’; the equivalent of enemies on the border. This was an act of cynical recklessness by the government. SACOS affiliates also suffered from a chronic lack of sponsorship as big business such as South African Breweries backed apartheid. Interprovincial non-racial competition involved arduous trips by road and self-funding. White sport prospered.
The strength of SACOS lay in moral consistency, strong principles and social cohesion which boosted communities lacking a non-racial political outlet. In other words, SACOS had a positive psychological influence and an uplifting vision of the future. On the downside, its critics argued, a legacy of non-collaboration encouraged conspiracy and self-righteousness demanding allegiance that became a matter of faith.
These criticisms became more strident as the 1980s drew to an end and the uncontested status of SACOS as the unaffiliated sports wing of the liberation movement was challenged. The ANC now saw a wonderful opportunity to ingratiate itself with white South Africa by serving up international sport again. Disaffected and opportunistic SACOS members founded the National Sports Congress, a pro-ANC outfit that promised future benefits. Indeed, almost everyone saw advantage in the demise of SACOS including the National Party and those with an eye to the growing commodification of sport and consequent substantial financial rewards.
By 1994 SACOS had ceased to exist and a significant critical voice was lost. Many of its supporters and officials gave up involvement in sport in disgust at the cynical and authoritarian tactics of the ANC, which meant that unity was in effect a takeover by the old apartheid federations with a few faces of colour on boards. This was accompanied by rainbow nation rhetoric and claims about nation building. This was both spurious and a blatant betrayal of the anti-apartheid movement.
It was subsequently conceded by some observers that unity had been too precipitate. But this obscures the fact that it should not have happened at all until there had been comprehensive negotiations and action to entrench non-racial principles in sport. This would have averted the exclusionary culture that has caused great distress in South African professional sport for the last thirty years. And a watchdog with a SACOS legacy might have made a difference to the current chronic lack of facilities for grassroots community recreation.
The writer was secretary to the Maritzburg District Cricket Union, a SACOS affiliate, for six years during the 1980s. The illustrations show the headquarters of the MDCU in 1981; and the ground staff in action at an inter-provincial match (Natal versus Transvaal) in March of the same year.