Today in Kimberley's History
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SA is banned from the Olympic Games - 1964
In October 1963, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in Baden Baden, Germany, that South Africa would have to eliminate racial discrimination in sport before 31 December 1963, or the country would not be permitted to send a team to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Though the deadline was later extended to allow SA more time, the government was not prepared to permit multiracial sport. As a result the IOC did not invite SA to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This was a heavy blow for South African sporting circles and it's supporters. Following Prime Minister J. B. Vorster's relaxed sports policy, a committee of the IOC visited SA in September, 1967 to examine the situation. The committee presented a favourable report and stated that SA had undertaken to send a multiracial team, selected on merit, to the next Olympic Games. On strength of this report, SA was invited to the 1968 games in Mexico, but this elicited such sharp protests from African countries, who threatened to withdraw if SA participated, that the IOC was obliged to withdraw its invitation in April, 1969. The ban was only lifted prior to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, when the international community became convinced that SA was irrevocably on the road to political transformation and democracy.
In October 1963, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in Baden Baden, Germany, that South Africa would have to eliminate racial discrimination in sport before 31 December 1963, or the country would not be permitted to send a team to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Though the deadline was later extended to allow SA more time, the government was not prepared to permit multiracial sport. As a result the IOC did not invite SA to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This was a heavy blow for South African sporting circles and it's supporters. Following Prime Minister J. B. Vorster's relaxed sports policy, a committee of the IOC visited SA in September, 1967 to examine the situation. The committee presented a favourable report and stated that SA had undertaken to send a multiracial team, selected on merit, to the next Olympic Games. On strength of this report, SA was invited to the 1968 games in Mexico, but this elicited such sharp protests from African countries, who threatened to withdraw if SA participated, that the IOC was obliged to withdraw its invitation in April, 1969. The ban was only lifted prior to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, when the international community became convinced that SA was irrevocably on the road to political transformation and democracy.
Steven Biko is arrested - 1977
Stephen Bantu Biko was the first president of South African Student Organisation (SASO), a black student’s organization that was focused on the resistance against and liberation from apartheid. In 1973 he was banned by apartheid government. Under the ban, he was restricted to his hometown King William’s Town and could not speak to the public or talk with media representatives. Biko started to work undercover and created the Zimele Trust Fund to aid political prisoners and families. On 18 August 1977, he was arrested on his way home from a political meeting and detained in Port Elizabeth under the Terrorism Act. This arrest was one of several each on different charges, including various allegations that he had broken his banning orders and a charge of obstructing the course of justice by persuading witnesses in a political trial to change their evidence. Biko was thirty years old and healthy when he was arrested. He was first taken to Port Elizabeth prison and on 11 September was transferred to Pretoria where he died in hospital after assaults in police custody. The police officers who had held Biko were questioned but none of them confirmed his cause of death. Two decades after his death 1997, five former officers confessed to killing Biko .They applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but the application was denied. Biko was buried on 25 September 1977 in the Ginsberg cemetery outside King William’s Town.
Stephen Bantu Biko was the first president of South African Student Organisation (SASO), a black student’s organization that was focused on the resistance against and liberation from apartheid. In 1973 he was banned by apartheid government. Under the ban, he was restricted to his hometown King William’s Town and could not speak to the public or talk with media representatives. Biko started to work undercover and created the Zimele Trust Fund to aid political prisoners and families. On 18 August 1977, he was arrested on his way home from a political meeting and detained in Port Elizabeth under the Terrorism Act. This arrest was one of several each on different charges, including various allegations that he had broken his banning orders and a charge of obstructing the course of justice by persuading witnesses in a political trial to change their evidence. Biko was thirty years old and healthy when he was arrested. He was first taken to Port Elizabeth prison and on 11 September was transferred to Pretoria where he died in hospital after assaults in police custody. The police officers who had held Biko were questioned but none of them confirmed his cause of death. Two decades after his death 1997, five former officers confessed to killing Biko .They applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but the application was denied. Biko was buried on 25 September 1977 in the Ginsberg cemetery outside King William’s Town.