The importance of boycotts in sports: the role of the United Nations Special Commitee Against Apartheid

Growing up in a home where sport was central to my childhood and adulthood, playing sport of any kind became instrumental in expressing myself, my passions and who I wanted to be. For many people of colour during the apartheid era and for generations after, this self-expression and passion was suppressed and challenged due to the segregationist nature of apartheid and the ways in which sport inevitably brought communities together. Our country is still in the process of transforming many sporting codes because of the generational impacts of apartheid on equity. Former president of the South African Council on Sport (SACOS), Joe Ebrahim, acknowledges the role that sports boycotts played in dismantling apartheid by stating in an interview with Mail and Guardian:

“… the political influence in sport played a tremendous role in bringing across to people that society is far broader than simply the question of where you stay and what you are allowed to do etc. It also has to deal with the interaction between human beings, and you can’t be accepted, to a certain extent, being an equal on the weekend when you play sport but then for the rest of the week you are treated as unequal.”.

Sport is a representation of our society, our backgrounds, our personalities, passions and beliefs. They have the ability to bring millions of people together to celebrate talent, across all sporting sectors, and is an expression of coming together despite race, ability, gender and sexuality.

During the apartheid regime in South Africa, sport was segregated by race. Sport was used as a mechanism to maintain racial segregation and promote white supremacy of the apartheid government. Only white people could represent South Africa at international sporting tournaments such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games and separate sporting bodies were created for whites and non-whites, such as the whites-only South African Rugby Board, established in 1889. Sport arenas had separate entrances, seating and toilets for non-whites whilst other stadiums banned all non-whites from entering the premises altogether.

In the 1960s the anti-apartheid movement began to focus more on the effects of these racialised policies in the world of sport. The anti-apartheid movement worked with the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) and SACOS to boycott the apartheid regime’s segregationist sports policies, lobbying the International Olympic Committee (IOC) into banning South Africa from participating in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Such non-racial sporting bodies were important in mobilising sports boycotts internationally and within South Africa. The sports boycott was significant in mobilising awareness of the apartheid laws and support for the anti-apartheid movement and impacted people in more immediate ways in comparison to other types of sanctions. This is because news about sporting events being cancelled and sport players being prevented from travel or choosing not to participate spread quickly to people in many different sectors around the world. The work of such non-racial sporting bodies was complemented by the work of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, which was established in the 1960s. In a 1981 report, the Chairman of the UN Special Committee stated:

“Several sports bodies in Western countries are actively campaigning for readmission of South African into international sport on the ground of alleged changes in South Africa” however, he added, “In an attempt to hide the true state of affairs from being known in the world, the regime has denied passports to leaders of non-racial sport, Hassan Howa (chairman of SACOS), M.N Pather and Morgan Naidoo. It recently refused visas to Paul Stephenson, member of the British Sports Council, to visit South Africa as a guest of the non-racial South African Council on Sport.”

The Special Committee presented annual reports and updates on matters regarding sports collaborations and visits of other countries and people with the apartheid government. In May 1981, the committee published its first register of sports contacts of organisations, individuals, promoters and administrators in Western and other states that were coordinating with apartheid South Africa. The register itself contained a list of sports exchanges with South Africa. The register was an introduction to highlighting the significance of the campaign against apartheid sports.

In conjunction with this register, and even preceding the register, the committee also wrote to governments to lobby a change in their collaborations with the apartheid government. For instance, in November 1980, the Committee chairman addressed the Government of Ireland to take all appropriate action to prevent a tour of South Africans by the Irish Rugby Football Union. Despite formal efforts to call off the tour to South Africa, the Irish Rugby team visited South Africa in May 1981. In 1980 alone, the French Rugby team toured South Africa; the South African rugby team toured Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile; the South African golf team participated in the Eisenhower Trophy tournament in the United States; the World Amateur Golf Tournament changed locations from Sweden to Switzerland to accommodate South Africa; and the Weaver-Coetzee boxing match was staged in the Bantustan of Bophuthatswana. The Springboks also toured New Zealand in 1981 despite protests.

Efforts by the Committee on sport led to the United Nations International Convention against Apartheid in Sports which was adopted by the General Assembly in Resolution 40/64 in December 1985. This resolution advocated for countries to actively work against the participation and support of apartheid states in international sporting events.

Currently, sports still speak volumes in the political landscape of our world. For example, boycotting movements have begun globally to lobby FIFA to ‘red card’ Israel from participating in official FIFA tournaments until it suspends its settler- colonial and genocidal activities in Palestine. Similarly, the IOC banned Russia from the Paris 2024 Olympic games for breaking the Olympic Truce with its invasion of Ukraine. These are all issues that infiltrate into the sporting community and has the ability to mobilise millions of people to lobby institutes and states to act fairly, vouch for equality and be responsible for their actions. We must make use of such systems to advocate for the liberation of marginalised athletes and peoples across the world. We must look at sport as an avenue to mobilise ourselves and our peers into dismantling systems of oppression and injustice.