Talking Drums

The West African News Magazine

The Gleneagles Agreement and the sporting boycotts

Linus C. Okere

Against the back-drop of the Gleneagles Agreement which forms a part of Commonwealth leaders' support for an international campaign against the apartheid regime, this writer argues on why countries and sportsmen who maintain sporting links with South Africa must be punished.
The recent decision by the Zimbabwean and Bangladeshi authorities to ban four of players of the England B cricket team from entering their countries should be hailed as a victory for the Commonwealth in its campaign against apartheid. The decision which led to the cancellation of the tour should inspire other Commonwealth leaders to reject sportsmen who give credibility to the evil regime.

The Gleneagles agreement forms a part of Commonwealth leaders' support for the international campaign against the apartheid regime. At their biennial summit at Gleneagles in Scotland in 1977 Commonwealth heads of government agreed to combat the evil of apartheid by withholding any form of support for, and by taking every practical step to discourage contact or competition by their nationals with A sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa or from any other country where sports are organised on the basis of race, colour or ethnic origin'.

In this context the statement by the British Sports Minister, Mr Richard Tracey, that the four players' involvement with South Africa did not violate the agreement should be dismissed. He had certainly not been reading the 'Common- wealth statement on apartheid in sport'. It does not matter whether they went there as players or coaches; the fact is that they were engaged in sports-related activity - coaching

Recently, Commonwealth leaders have appealed to sportsmen not to be deceived by so-called reform or changes in apartheid sports, or allow themselves to be lured into South Africa by Pretoria's money power. Some writers have argued that because South Africa pays millions of pounds to attract players, the boycott is biting

The concern for racial harmony and human dignity by the Commonwealth should not be surprising since its membership straddles across continents- peoples of different races, colours, religions and languages, but united by one language - English.

Apartheid is a system which runs contrary to the 1971 Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles. The importance of the agreement has therefore been reiterated at successive Commonwealth meetings.

Despite the Zimbabwean and Bangladeshi decision and the steps taken last year by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr David Lange, against the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, the Commonwealth campaign against sport- ing contacts with South Africa has not always been successful. In March 1982, twelve English test cricketers visited South Africa under the arrangement of the South African Cricket Union. This tour was sponsored by the South African Breweries. These players were banned for three years by the Test and Country Cricket Board, but the Commonwealth suffered further violations.

In October 1982, fourteen Sri Lankan cricketers went to South Africa in defiance of both their government and the country's Cricket Board of Control. They were later banned for twenty-five years.. Perhaps the most painful of these violations was the tour in January 1983 by some West Indian cricketers. The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sonny Ramphal, was later to describe this tour as "an act of treachery to the black people of South Africa".

In response to these failures, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation met in Brisbane, Australia, in October 1983 to make some constitutional changes. The Federation adopted new provisions which authorised it to deny participation in Commonwealth Games to a country if there is a breach.

Recently, Commonwealth leaders have appealed to sportsmen not to be deceived by the so-called reform or changes in apartheid sport, or allow themselves to be lured into South Africa by Pretoria's money power. Some writers have argued that because South Africa pays millions of pounds to attract players the boycott is biting. Although there is no doubt that those who accept these short-term financial gains put their professions into disrepute.

Apartheid lobbyists and those with vested interests in the Republic, have been campaigning for contact by referring to changes in the Separate Amenities Act and the Group Areas Act. These amendments are, however, designed not to encourage integration in sports, but rather they were aimed at achieving South Africa's re-entry into the international scene. Part of this tactic was the tour of West Indian cricketers. Here the image of sports across the colour bar is created, leaving apartheid intact, while welcoming the visitors as "honorary whites".

Mr Sam Ramsamy, the leader of the South African Non-racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) in a speech in 1984 quoted a South African opposition mem- ber when he said: "It (one of the amendments) gives sportsmen...a licence to be white for the short time they are engaged in sporting activities, but reduces them to a lower status as soon as they leave the club premises..

Others have contended that sports and politics should not mix. These people are in no doubt in the world of dreams. Lord Carrington, the former British Foreign Secretary, made this point again during the Carter-Thatcher campaigns in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The Soviet Union showed how inextricable sport and politics are when it led an Eastern bloc boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in retaliation. In South Africa nothing can be separated from politics because apartheid is a twenty-four-hour control and applies everywhere both in public and in private.

Commonwealth initiative has inspired greater international pledges to isolate South African sport. An international seminar in London in June 1983 urged the international sporting community to adopt a code of conduct similar to that of the Commonwealth Games Federation which offers guidelines to national Commonwealth Games Associations in dealing with breaches.

It is hoped that the current developments in the Republic will force those concerned to reject the apartheid sport.






talking drums 1986-02-10 IMF dictates to Ghana - Inflation - Devaluation - Commonwealth Games