South Africa: Sport and Apartheid Politics

• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944500116
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Author: Richard E. Lapchick
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

155

South

Africa:

Sport

and

Apartheid

Politics

By

RICHARD

E.

LAPCHICK

Richard

Lapchick is

the

Executive

Director

of

ARENA,

The

Institute

for

Sport

and

Social

Analysis,

and

the

National

Chairperson

of

ACCESS,

the

American

Coordinating

Committee

for

Equality

in

Sport

and

Society.

Currently

he

is

a

consultant

on

South

Africa

to

the

United

Nations.

Dr.

Lapchick

is

the

author

of

The

Politics

of

Race

and

International

Relations:

The

Case

of

South

Africa

and

several

publications

on

international

sport.

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.