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Posted Thursday 24th September 2011 at 12.13pm
Dolly
Amidst the uproar as the idiot Blatter decided that racism was fine as long as we apologise and shake hands afterwards, Basil D'Oliveira chose a most appropriate moment to pass away. His is a story that reminds us that, on one matter at least, sport and politics do mix; and that sport can, occasionally, do the right thing, even if it takes two attempts.
It's interesting to read the Economist's original report on the affair from 1968.
"The D’Oliveira affair caught Mr Vorster in mid-act, and immediately after the party’s Transvaal congress, that of the equally reactionary Orange Free State. But there will be a backlash too. White South Africans are crazy about sport, and now they face the prospect that the barring of Mr D’Oliveira could mean the end of all South African participation in international sport. It is a thought which appals them as nothing else could."
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