SACOS celebrates five decades of fighting for racial equality in sports 

by | Aug 2, 2023 | News

The South African Council on Sport (SACOS) recognises that the fight for non-racialism in sports still remains relevant in the country.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, SACOS and Wits History Workshop held a two-day colloquium at the South West Engineering building and at the Great Hall at Wits. 

After having been around for decades, the two-day seminar from Friday, July 28 to July 29, focused on the relevance of the council in post-apartheid South Africa through various panel discussions. It also celebrated its history through book launches and exhibitions. 

SACOS was established in March 1973 during the peak of apartheid and was strongly dedicated to creating non-racialism in sports. It was widely recognised as the sporting arm of the liberation movement, mobilising communities nationwide under the powerful slogan “No Normal Sport in an Abnormal Society!” 

Unfortunately, with the advent of democracy, SACOS became marginalised. The changing political landscape of the country along with the increasing emphasis on elite and professional sports, diminished SACOS’s influence and relegated it to the sidelines in the new era.

Laurence Stewart, from the Wits History Workshop, told Wits Vuvuzela that even though things have changed since South Africa ushered in democracy; the council is still needed due to the challenges that are still pervasive in sport today. 

Stewart pointed out that there is a severe lack of sports within public schools, possibly even less than what was available 15 years ago. “SACOS is relevant now because of the poor state of all sports,” he emphasised. 

He also pointed out that the country has a priority problem when it comes to sports.  Stewart explained, “You have Siya Kolisi being the captain of the rugby team, but [he] had to be taken out of the community where he grew up, [and] taken to a private school in order to be who he is now. 

“You can’t get into the national team if you come from a poor community and live in that community, you have to be taken out,” he continued.  

He said that the entire system is based on “inequality and division” while highlighting that there has been a failure to “bridge that gap” by the government and civil society. 

“Sport is racialised, it’s divided and there’s a lot of inequality, and SACOS was a sports group which existed during apartheid, which stood up and created sports [amongst] poor communities,” he said.  

SACOS member, Carlton Weber, gave a presentation titled “A Dialectical-Historical Deconstruction of 50 years inside a community-based Sports Organisation: Remembering SACOS from within SACOS.” 

Providing a historical context for the formation of SACOS, Weber delved into the colonisation of the country and how it consequently led to the establishment of an “abnormal society”, that divided people.  

SACOS member, Carlton Weber, during his presentation on the rich history of SACOS.

Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers

“SACOS, as an organisation, committed itself to re-establish, through sports, a very globally recognised human activity, to speak directly to these abnormalities and developed the principles that defined our essential humanity.” 

One of the event’s attendees, Roberta McBride, expressed her satisfaction with the fact that the speakers were addressing the issues faced in communities of colour. However, she also questioned how they were planning to solve the problem. 

Roberta McBride and Herschel Matthews share a hearty laugh as they fondly reminisce about the memories from their struggle for sports equality.

Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers

“We [are] all sitting here, we all played under the banner of SACOS, what are we going to do, how are we going to take it to our schools, what responsibility am I taking to organise the youth from the areas that we come from, we don’t live there anymore, we’ve moved on, but somehow we have to organise.” said Mcbride.  

The colloquium was a poignant reminder that the struggle for equality in sports is still on going. 

FEATURED IMAGE: A dilapidated soccer ball that symbolises the dire state of sports in poverty-stricken areas in South Africa. Photo: Elwood/ Istock 

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Marikana miners and family reflect on commission experiences

by | May 11, 2015 | News

As the public awaits President Jacob Zuma’s release of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry report, miners and family members affected by the events of Marikana get a chance to share their experiences of the Commission.

LEGACY: Advocate George Bizos, attended the Wits SRC's One Million, One Month launch at the Wits Great Hall. The Human Rights Lawyer is best known for representing Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela in the Rivonia Trial. Photo: Tendai Dube

MARIKANA ADVOCATE Advocate George Bizos, was among the attendees at the ‘Commissioning the present’ conference this passed weekend. Photo: Tendai Dube

Veteran lawyer and anti-apartheid activist, George Bizos, implored lawyers and organisations to pressure government to accept civil liability for the women and children of the victims of Marikana.

Bizos was speaking at the closure of the Commissioning the Present conference at Wits University on Saturday. The three day conference was organised by Social Economic Rights Institute (SERI) and the Wits History Workshop and took place from May 7-9.

“It gives voice to the victims of the massacre and their families – a group of people who were almost completely left out of the Commission’s work and narrative.”

Dr Julian Brown, a politics lecturer at Wits, and one of the organisers of the event, said the conference had hoped to “bring the voices of academics, lawyers, the families of the deceased, and the miners themselves into conversation with each other, so that we can learn from our different insights”.

Brown added that the conference would “interrogate the ways in which stories about the Marikana massacre have been constructed by the state and other public players – in particular, by the Commission of Inquiry”.

The Marikana Commission of Inquiry, headed by Judge Ian Farlam, was set up to investigate the events of Marikana (which led to the deaths of 44 people, 70 injuries and 250 arrests).

Stuart Wilson, executive director at SERI said the conference was important because, “It gives voice to the victims of the massacre and their families – a group of people who were almost completely left out of the Commission’s work and narrative.”

Unsatisfactory treatment during the Marikana commission of inquiry

A panel of miners and family members of deceased miners were given a platform to share their first hand experiences.

“I know that wasn’t done in order to find out the truth, it was done in order to persecute us.”

From their accounts, it was clear that there is a general belief that police were treated with greater dignity and respect during the Marikana Commission.

“I know that wasn’t done in order to find out the truth, it was done in order to persecute us,” said one of the panellists.

Nathabang Ntsenyeno broke down in tears as she spoke about how she watched her husband being killed in a video that was shown at the Commission. She added that the Commission was unsympathetic towards her, specifically pointed to the use of the term “uneducated” in reference to her and others at the Commission.

Nomasonto Gadlela explained how miners were repeatedly asked the same questions to the point where they felt intimidated.

Bringing together academia and lived experiences 

The conference also hosted academics who presented their work on Marikana.

The scholarly works dealt with topics such as – the lived experiences of men and women in Marikana; the social conditions in which the strike, and then the massacre took place; the role of Lonmin and mining capital, and the role of the police, to name a few.

Something that resonated from the scholarly works to the lived experiences of those affected was the reality of the lives of women in Marikana. Many women in the community have been forced to work in the Lonmin mines after losing their husbands because they have no other form of income or ways of supporting their families.

This has left many of these women feeling as if they are “a laughing stock” but they do it out of desperation, explained Nomfanelo Jali.

President Jacob Zuma has received Judge Farlam’s report and released a statement on May 10 indicating that he would release it publicly “in due course”.

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