Читать книгу The Politics of South African Football - Alpheus Koonyaditse - Страница 12

chapter four

If in its explanation FIFA hoped to assuage criticism of its move, it certainly did not work. The South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) promptly cabled FIFA signalling its opposition. SANROC also stated: “any lifting of [the] South African suspension by your Executive will contravene the 1964 FIFA Congress.” They went on to warn that, should there be any thought of indulging South Africa “there will be serious repercussions at the World Cup in 1974.” The Supreme Council of Sport in Africa was also incensed by FIFA’s stance. Its president, Abraham Ordia, spoke for them all when he said support for South African sports was a “violation of human dignity.” He called for all countries to stand united: “I think it will be wrong for any country to support South African sports at this time. They have not made sufficient progress in mixed sports.” CAF was also riled, and its president, Yidnekatchew Tessema, likewise spoke for everyone when he said: “It is unconstitutional, in my opinion. The Executive Committee cannot take a decision by correspondence overruling the decision of the Congress.”

The African associations realised that the only way to tackle not only the South African issue, but also other matters affecting the continent, was to forge alliances with other equally discontented confederations. At a meeting in Rio de Janeiro in December 1973, Africa officially forged an alliance with Latin America. An agreement was reached to vote for Dr Jean-Marie Faustin Goedefroid de Havelange (commonly known as João Havelange), a Brazilian of Belgian descent, as the next FIFA president. The deal was simple: “Get South Africa expelled from FIFA.”

Even before that, other continental bodies were lobbied to push on all fronts, but it was not always easy, as the Africans themselves seem to have been divided as to the exact strategy needed to deal with the South Africa question. In a letter dated April 16, 1971, the President of the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa, Abraham Ordia of Nigeria, recommended caution. Ordia indicated that he had friends in South Africa who had sent him newspaper cuttings indicating that “sport in the country is multiracial and without discrimination” and further implored CAF to “isolate sports from politics.”

In another letter from CAF to the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa, dated September 29, 1976, apparently sparked by the Soweto uprising of June 16 the same year, Yidnekatchew Tessema made clear CAF’s position towards South Africa: “If we are to emerge victorious against the racist enemies of Africa [it is imperative that] we take stock of our past efforts, successes and failures in the common struggle [and based on our findings] devise the best possible strategy and tactics for the future.” The six-page letter proposed a boycott by African countries of the 1976 Olympics in Montréal if “South Africa continues to enjoy [the] support of international bodies.” Tessema outlined what he called a more “effective strategy in our continuing struggle against racism and apartheid South Africa.” According to him, such a position would clearly demonstrate that Africa would not hesitate to make any sacrifices for “the defence and dignity of the black race.” In the face of such a determined position by Africans, most countries would have had no choice but to “sever their sports relations with South Africa.”

The South African sports authorities, however, remained intransigent. In 1975, the secretary of the South African Lawn Tennis Union, Louis Janssens, said that South Africa would not withdraw from the Davis Cup competition even though no countries were prepared to play against them. Just before then, the Mexican government had refused to grant visas to South African players and also refused to allow the Mexican team to “play against the South Africans at any other venue.” The previous year, in 1974, both Argentina and India had refused to play South Africa even though this meant South Africa would win by default.

CAF, meanwhile, was stepping up its ongoing efforts to isolate South Africa completely. In another communiqué, this time to IOC president Lord Killian, a seven-page letter threatened an African boycott of the 1976 Olympic Games because, although South Africa was not playing any international football matches, it had other sports relations with some countries. Tessema wrote: “[T]he African teams will withdraw from the Games, refusing to stand beside athletes from New Zealand.” The reason for opposing New Zealand in this instance was “the dispatch, despite opposition from African sports and political authorities, of a rugby team to South Africa, especially after the Soweto massacre.”

It was at the 1974 FIFA Congress in Frankfurt, West Germany, that the person whom CAF believed would finally listen to them, won the FIFA presidency. Africa voted as a bloc, and this not only brought in a new man, but Dr João Havelange would be the first non-European president of FIFA. CAF’s motion, which stipulated automatic expulsion of “any association representing a country that has instituted ethnic, racial and/or religious discrimination in its territory,” was finally being carried out.

Before then, while his FIFA presidency was still in its infancy, Havelange had warned South Africa that if it continued “to disregard FIFA guidelines on racial equality in sport, it risks expulsion.” Havelange’s warning presaged the lull before the storm. As the 1976 FIFA Congress to be held in the Canadian city of Montréal, drew closer, African countries were again preparing to lobby for the expulsion of South Africa from the international football body. CAF President Yidnekatchew Tessema pointed out that a clause inserted into the FIFA rules in 1974 barred countries practicing racial discrimination, which meant that South Africa should necessarily be expelled.

Tessema said that Africans were hoping that the FIFA Congress, scheduled for July 16, “would have the courage to uphold the FIFA regulations which were not aimed at either white or black people in South Africa, but only against racial discrimination.” On Friday, July 16, 1976, South Africa was finally expelled from FIFA. From CAF’s point of view, the voting pattern was most reassuring: 78-9. The decision incidentally came exactly one month after the June 16 massacre by South African police of schoolchildren demonstrating against oppressive and discriminatory laws. (Also incidentally, in 1992 João Havelange became the first FIFA president to visit South Africa after it was readmitted, Sir Stanley Rous having been the last president to visit the country in 1963.) Africans heaved a collective sigh of relief, especially with the exclusion from FIFA – arguably the largest and most influential of all international sports bodies.

FIFA’s move was perhaps best summed up by Abraham Ordia, president of the Supreme Council of Sports in Africa, who said on September 17, 1976, in gratitude for CAF’s efforts: “At long last you have achieved this significant success, not only for Africa, but for the black races of the world and for all those who have respect for human dignity.” FIFA’s decision proved to be a watershed. Two weeks after being excluded from FIFA South Africa was expelled from the International Amateur Athletic Federation by 145 out of 227 votes¹⁵ and from the International Amateur Swimming Federation.

A week later South Africa was expelled from yet another international sports body, now swimming; this time it was not by vote, although it later emerged that the decision was backed by more than 85 of the 115 delegates from 74 countries. David de Villiers of the South African Amateur Swimming Union told the Los Angeles Advocate that considerable progress had been made towards ending racial discrimination in sports. “If we are expelled, it will simply isolate South Africa and discourage further progress in ending discrimination.”

By then, South Africa did not have any sporting allies left in the world. An active IOC member since 1904, the country was first suspended in 1964 then formally expelled in 1970. Actually, South Africa’s suspension from the IOC was preceded by a warning two days earlier. The IOC said that it condemned apartheid and that all racial groups should be treated equally. On August 18, 1964, the IOC announced in Lausanne, Switzerland, that South Africa had been suspended. The IOC had originally withdrawn South Africa’s invitation to Japan during the winter games in Innsbruck, Austria.

The IOC had been specific that the decision could be overturned “if South Africa renounced racial discrimination in sport and opposed the ban in its own country on competition between white and black athletes.”

Early in June, two months before being suspended, the South Africans had announced that they would be including seven non-white players in their team of 62 Olympic participants. This was not enough however: on June 26, 1964, the committee gave South Africa one last chance to make a “declaration within 50 days or face the ban.” Riled by the IOC’s insistence, the South African Amateur Athletic Union pulled out of a British athletics meeting in June 1964 to protest against the ultimatum. The South Africans accused the IOC of introducing politics into sports. The South African refusal to condemn apartheid drew further condemnation before the Games. There were protests against South African policy at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London late in June 1964, with several players scheduled to meet a South African withdrawing from the competition. Teams from Africa were encouraged now more than ever before, to have South Africa isolated completely.

A year before the 1968 Olympics the IOC sent a fact-finding delegation to South Africa. The report from the delegation, which consisted of Lord Killian, Reginald Alexander and Sir Adetokunbo Ademola of Nigeria, confirmed to the IOC executive board that the South African government’s stance regarding the maintenance of segregation policies as part of the broader laws of the land was “unaltered, but indicated its agreement to allow a mixed-race representation for the Mexico Games.” This satisfied the IOC, and on February 15, 1968, at its congress in Grenoble, France, the IOC voted in favour of inviting South Africa to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.

The next day, February 16, 1968, Yidnekatchew Tessema, told the media in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia would boycott the Mexico Games, and that it would incite other Africans to do the same. He asked: “What has the IOC achieved if the status quo is to remain the same after the Games?” It became clear that African, Asian and Latin American countries and Brazil in particular, would also join the boycott. Things happened quickly, and Algeria and Uganda soon heeded Tessema’s call. The Soviet Union, for its part, condemned the invitation to South Africa as a “flagrant violation of the statutes of the International Olympic Committee” and warned that it might even consider boycotting. Within 24 hours, Africa reacted as one. Ghana, Tanzania, Mali and Egypt joined the group calling for a boycott, with Syria, Cuba, Sweden, Norway and Finland declaring their solidarity with Africa.

On February 25, 1968, the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity also voted in favour of a total African boycott. On February 26, the executive committee of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa threw its weight behind an African boycott of the Olympics. The IOC was not pleased, and its president, Avery Brundage, issued a number of warnings disguised as advice to would-be boycotters, and when the movement continued to gain strength, went as far as declaring that “the Mexico Games will be held even if I have to be there with five South Africans.” The hosts, to forestall a possible last-minute cancellation of the Games by the IOC, effectively undercut Brundage’s position by threatening to deny South Africans entry visas. The IOC finally relented, and on April 13, 1968, appealed to the South African National Olympic Committee to voluntarily withdraw for the sake of the IOC. South Africa refused. This left the IOC with no option other than the one Africans had been calling for: withdrawing South Africa’s invitation.

On April 20, 1968, the IOC executive board met in Lausanne, Switzerland, and unanimously agreed on the wording of the telegram to be sent to all board members:

In view of all the information on the international climate received by the executive board at this meeting, it is unanimously of the opinion that it would be most unwise for a South African team to participate in the games of the XIX Olympiad. Therefore, the executive board strongly recommends that you endorse this unanimous proposal to withdraw the invitation to these games.

On April 24, 1968, as the postal vote result was announced, it became clear that not all IOC Board members had a problem with segregated sports. Forty-seven were in favour of withdrawing South Africa’s invitation, sixteen against it, and eight abstained.

(Thirty-two years later another abstention, by New Zealander Charles Dempsey, in 2000, would haunt South Africa and deny it the right to host the 2006 World Cup.)

Attempts to get South Africa out of international sport had been steadily intensifying. Africans accused the IOC of refusing to ban New Zealand’s team to the 1968 Olympics, despite their continued sporting relations with South Africa.

The Africans embarked on a boycott, knowing that they risked being expelled from major sports bodies like the IOC and FIFA but, as Tessema explained, “this is the price we are prepared to pay.”

The 1968 Olympic boycott came at huge personal sacrifice to a considerable number of African athletes. The track-and-field events were hit particularly hard by the absence of Filbert Bayi from Tanzania, world champion of the 1500-metre dash, and John Akii-Bua of Uganda, holder of the world record in the 400-metre hurdles race. Kenya followed suit. In a statement issued just hours before the opening ceremony, Kenyan foreign minister, James Osogo, said the government and the people of Kenya “hold the view that principles are more precious than medals.”

Osogo said the IOC decision not to ban New Zealand would give “comfort and respectability to the South African racist regime and encourage it to continue to defy world opinion.”

The African boycott, which was supported by other countries, was proving effective, as 20 of the 26 participating countries withdrew from the 1968 Games. This was working fine for Africans and with no reason to change the winning formula they repeated the strategy eight years later. A total of 23 countries boycotted the 1976 Olympics: Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Zambia.

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¹⁵ The IAAF had already suspended South Africa in June 1970, but until the 1976 expulsion, the country’s athletes had been permitted to compete individually at minor athletics meetings.