A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport

A cartoon predicting South Africa's expulsion from the International Olympic Movement

Date: 12 Jan 1980
Updated: 10 Jan 2020

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.

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01O’Malley, P. ‘1980’, from Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialog, [online], Available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za [Accessed:13 December 2013)
02BBC, ‘1964: South Africa banned from Olympics’, 18 August, [online], Available, at https://news.bbc.co.uk[Accessed: 13 December 2013]

Last updated · 10 Jan 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, December 20). A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport . South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/xh/ref/E-0094455

South African History Online (2012) 'A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport ', South African History Online, 20 December. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/xh/ref/E-0094455 (Accessed: 24 July 2026).

South African History Online, A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport [website], https://sahistory.org.za/xh/ref/E-0094455, (accessed 24 July 2026).

"A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport ." South African History Online, 20 Dec. 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/xh/ref/E-0094455. Accessed 24 July 2026.

South African History Online. "A British Sports Council team begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to probe racial discrimination in sport ." South African History Online. December 20, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/xh/ref/E-0094455.