Civil rights group AfriForum is to lodge a complaint with the International Olympic Committee if the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) refuses to withdraw its ”threat” of sending a 50/50 racial-quota team to the next Olympic Games.
”Sascoc’s threat not only embodies the abuse of athletes and sport for political purposes, but will also result in blatant discrimination against athletes on racial grounds,” AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said on Wednesday.
Kriel said a letter sent to Sascoc’s president, Moss Mashishi, warning that the withdrawal of the threat should happen within the next seven days ”by means of public media”.
This follows statements made on Tuesday by Sascoc to the parliamentary sports committee that sport federations were informed that only teams complying with Sascoc’s racial requirements (50/50) would be sent to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.
”The international isolation of South African sport is in the interest of no one and I hope that Sascoc will reconsider its reckless threats,” Kriel said.
African National Congress MPs in the sports committee expressed concern, among other issues, about the 45 white and 28 black athletes in the Olympic practice group, as well as companies’ selective support of sports codes already benefiting from sponsorships.
Beeld newspaper on Wednesday quoted Khaya Majeke, Sascoc manager of team preparation, as saying: ”We told them [sports federations] we will only choose their teams if they have 50/50 representation. Some of them then said they did not have black players.
”Our answer was, ‘We don’t care. Go find them on the streets or in Alexandra. Sascoc will ensure a representative demographic.”