9: The South African Sport Industry

The importance of sport in the South African context is capturedin the aforementioned quote by Nelson Mandela on the occasion of the Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony in 2000. This chapter will highlight the recent history and developmental stages of the South African sport industry. It will also examine the current state of the sport industry in South Africa. The developmental characteristics, strengths, and highlights of the South African sport industry will further be presented, in addition to contemporary challenges and issues within the industry.

South Africa is known as a “sport-mad” nation and has a rich historical tradition of sport participation. The development of South African sport is strongly influenced by broader social, political, and economic factors. Evidence of bigotry in sport dates back to colonial and imperial times (Nauright, 2010; Nongogo, 2011). Moreover, the history of South African sport is plagued by fragmentation due to the apartheid policies legalizing racial segregation from 1948 to 1994. The emergence of the Sport African Sports Association, under the leadership of Dennis Brutus, during 1958–1962 was a significant watershed in the history of sports-based protest against apartheid (Keech, 2001). The non-racial sport movement gained momentum, with the forming of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee in 1963 (SANROC). SANROC wanted to replace the all-White South African National Olympic Committee (SANOC).