A group of Afrikaner activists under the banner of AfriForum is off to Europe to draw the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) attention to the threat of interference in sport posed by the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill.
The legislation was passed by the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.
The group, which is founded by trade union Solidarity, will also call on world soccer body Fifa and the International Rugby Board.
According to Kallie Kriel, chief executive of AfriForum, the Bill will empower the sports minister to issue legally binding instructions to sport bodies, directly in contravention of international sport regulations.
A letter has already been sent to President Thabo Mbeki, appealing to him not to sign the amendment Bill when it reaches him. AfriForum told Mbeki that the charters of the IOC and Fifa both expressly prohibit political interference in sport.
The IOC’s Olympic Charter, for example, states that any ”political abuse of sport and athletes” has to be opposed, while a fundamental principle prohibits ”any form of racial discrimination”.
Fifa banned Greece from taking part in international soccer last year as a result of that country’s governmental interference in sport. Fifa indicated that ”only soccer structures may take soccer-related decisions, independently of governmental interference”.
”AfriForum wants to ensure that the international sport organisations enter into discussions with the South African government to prevent South Africa from isolating itself from the international sport community once again as the result of the contravention of international sport regulations,” Kriel said.
Kriel had submitted a petition to Parliament and made a presentation to the portfolio committee on sport and recreation to request that the amendment Bill not be passed in its current form.
”The arrogant manner in which AfriForum’s reasonable inputs were rejected by political ideologists — who pose as sport enthusiasts — in Parliament, does not leave us with any other choice than to start internationalising the matter,” he said. — I-Net Bridge