A cartoon predicting South Africa's expulsion from the International Olympic Movement
This Day in History: January 12, 1980
Additional Date: January 12, 1980
In May 1962 Dennis Brutus, Secretary of the South African Sports Association, wrote to Otto Mayer, the then Chancellor of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), requesting that the South African National Olympic Committee (SANOC) be expelled from the International Olympic Committee because of the country’s policies of racial discrimination. Subsequently, in 1964, SANOC was banned from taking part in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo over its refusal to condemn apartheid. This came after the committee gave SANOC one last chance to make the declaration within 50 days or face the ban. The country was readmitted to the international stage in the early 1990s.