Apartheid

=== Sport under apartheid ===
{{See also|Rugby union and apartheid}}
By the 1930s, [[association football]] mirrored the [[Balkanization|balkanised]] society of South Africa; football was divided into numerous institutions based on race: the (White) [[South African Football Association]], the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South African African Football Association (SAAFA) and its rival the South African Bantu Football Association, and the South African Coloured Football Association (SACFA). Lack of funds to provide proper equipment would be noticeable in regards to black amateur football matches; this revealed the unequal lives black South Africans were subject to, in contrast to Whites, who were much better off financially.<ref>{{cite book|last=Alegi|first=Peter|year=2004|title=Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa|publisher=University of KwaZula-Natal Press|page=59}}</ref> Apartheid's social engineering made it more difficult to compete across racial lines. Thus, in an effort to centralise finances, the federations merged in 1951, creating the South African Soccer Federation (SASF), which brought Black, Indian, and Coloured national associations into one body that opposed apartheid. This was generally opposed more and more by the growing apartheid government, and{{snds}}with urban segregation being reinforced with ongoing racist policies{{snds}}it was harder to play football along these racial lines. In 1956, the Pretoria regime{{snds}}the administrative capital of South Africa{{snds}}passed the first apartheid sports policy; by doing so, it emphasised the White-led government's opposition to inter-racialism.

While football was plagued by racism, it also played a role in protesting apartheid and its policies. With the international bans from [[FIFA]] and other major sporting events, South Africa would be in the spotlight internationally. In a 1977 survey, white South Africans ranked the lack of international sport as one of the three most damaging consequences of apartheid.<ref name=robnixon>{{cite book|last=Nixon|first=Rob|year=1992|title=Apartheid on the Run: The South African Sports Boycott|publisher=Indiana University Press|pages=75, 77}}</ref> By the mid-1950s, Black South Africans would also use media to challenge the "racialisation" of sports in South Africa; anti-apartheid forces had begun to pinpoint sport as the "weakness" of white national morale. Black journalists for the ''Johannesburg Drum'' magazine were the first to give the issue public exposure, with an intrepid special issue in 1955 that asked, "Why shouldn't our blacks be allowed in the SA team?"<ref name=robnixon /> As time progressed, international standing with South Africa would continue to be strained. In the 1980s, as the oppressive system was slowly collapsing the ANC and National Party started negotiations on the end of apartheid, football associations also discussed the formation of a single, non-racial controlling body. This unity process accelerated in the late 1980s and led to the creation, in December 1991, of an incorporated South African Football Association. On 3 July 1992, FIFA finally welcomed South Africa back into international football.

Sport has long been an important part of life in South Africa, and the boycotting of games by international teams had a profound effect on the white population, perhaps more so than the trade embargoes did. After the re-acceptance of South Africa's sports teams by the international community, sport played a major unifying role between the country's diverse ethnic groups. Mandela's open support of the predominantly white rugby fraternity during the [[1995 Rugby World Cup]] was considered instrumental in bringing together South African sports fans of all races.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nauright|first=John|year=2004|title=Global Games: Culture, Political Economy and Sport in the Globalised World of the 21st Century|journal=Third World Quarterly|volume=25|issue=7|pages=1325–36|doi=10.1080/014365904200281302|s2cid=154741874}}</ref>

==== Professional boxing ====
Activities in the sport of professional boxing were also affected, as there were 44 recorded professional boxing fights for national titles as deemed "for Whites only" between 1955 and 1979,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxrec.com/en/titles?t%5Bbout_title%5D=389&t%5Bdivision%5D=schedule&t_go=|title=BoxRec: Titles|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=6 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206070334/https://boxrec.com/en/titles?t%5Bbout_title%5D=389&t%5Bdivision%5D=schedule&t_go=|url-status=live}}</ref> and 397 fights as deemed "for non-Whites" between 1901 and 1978.<ref name="boxrec.com">{{cite web|url=https://boxrec.com/en/titles?t%5Bbout_title%5D=388&t%5Bdivision%5D=results&t_go=&offset=0|title=BoxRec: Titles|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=6 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206070307/https://boxrec.com/en/titles?t%5Bbout_title%5D=388&t%5Bdivision%5D=results&t_go=&offset=0|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first fight for a national "White" title was held on 9 April 1955, between Flyweights [[Jerry Jooste]] and Tiny Corbett at the City Hall in Johannesburg; it was won by Jooste by a twelve rounds points decision.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxrec.com/en/ent/634779|title=BoxRec|website=boxrec.com}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> The last one was between national "White" Light-Heavyweight champion [[Gerrie Bodenstein]] and challenger Mervin Smit on 5 February 1979, at the [[Joekies Ice Rink]] in [[Welkom]], [[Free State (province)|Free State]]. it was won by the champion by a fifth-round technical knockout.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxrec.com/en/event/291594|title=BoxRec: Event|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=5 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105063753/https://boxrec.com/en/event/291594|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first "non Whites" South African national championship bout on record apparently (the date appears as "uncertain" on the records) took place on 1 May 1901, between [[Andrew Jephtha]] and Johnny Arendse for the vacant Lightweight belt, Jephtha winning by knockout in round nineteen of a twenty rounds-scheduled match, in Cape Town.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://boxrec.com/en/event/522824|title=BoxRec: Event|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=6 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206070302/https://boxrec.com/en/event/522824|url-status=live}}</ref>

The last "non White" title bout took place on 18 December 1978, between [[Sipho Mange]] and [[Chris Kid Dlamini]]; Mange-Dlamini was the culminating fight of a boxing program that included several other "non White" championship contests. Mange won the vacant non-White Super Bantamweight title by outpointing Dlamini over twelve rounds at the [[Goodwood Showgrounds]] in Cape Town.<ref name="boxrec.com"/>