The MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms. Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba will unveil the Sport in the Struggle Exhibition at Sol Plaatje University on Thursday, 20 September 2018. The exhibition themed "Honouring the forgotten Heroes" details how the majority of black sportsmen and women were denied access to sporting opportunities by erstwhile Apartheid government. The joint programme between Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, McGregor Museum, Department of Sports and Recreation as well as the Sol Plaatje University will remain at the university's exhibition hall until October 2018.
While discrimination in sport based on race has been a phenomenon almost since Europeans first settled in the Cape, this denying of the right to play sport regardless of one’s race became more pronounced with the formalizing of sport competitions and organising during the second half o the nineteenth century. These conditions became regulated under the National Party government in the 1950’s.
Sporting events where South Africans of different races competed against each other was outlawed, sport facilities for players and spectators was segregated, and transgressors were intimidated and forced to comply.
The Olympic principle in sport, namely that there should be no discrimination allowed in sport regardless of race, religion or political affiliation was systemically denied the majority of South Africans during Apartheid.
Countless sport people of colour suffered under this repressive system and were denied the opportunity to compete at the highest level in sport.
The “Sport in the Struggle” exhibition is a travelling exhibition, displaying prominent figures and events that reflect the role for sport in the Anti-Apartheid struggle leading up to democracy in South Africa.
The exhibition was first held in 2013 at the Apartheids Museum and since then the exhibition has been travelling across South Africa and was also displayed at the Common Wealth Games in Glasgow.
The exhibition has proven to be popular everywhere, and has reached thousands of visitors who visit museums and exposed to it.
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Issued by: Communications Unit
Northern Cape Sport, Arts and Culture Department
053 807 4700
