Why was South Africa banned from all sports, including the Olympics, and many countries also imposed trade sanctions against them? What is the main reason behind this?

ryiannah_shrum

South Africa was banned because they refused to condemn the apartheid system. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_3547000/3547872.stm Jan 08 07, 3:39 PM

star_gazer

Apartheid was a racist system imposed upon South African society that gave Whites better treatment than Coloreds, Indians, and Blacks. Jan 08 07, 4:57 PM

ryiannah_shrum

Same general reason for the trade sanctions: apartheid. August 7, 1963 was the first arms embargo voluntarily established by the UN. In 1977, the embargo was made mandatory by the UN after South Africa's violent suppression of an uprising the year before. South Africa's continual insistence on its racist policies culminated in numerous complete trade sanctions by at least 25 countries by the late 80's. Interestingly, it was only in 1986 that the US (under Reagan) and UK (under PM Thatcher) actually imposed trade sanctions on South Africa. Prior to this, they resisted and vetoed UN economic sanctions under the guise of "free trade". Apparently, the US & UK believed that apartheid South Africa was a strong ally against communism in Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid#The_UN_and_the_International_Criminal_Court Jan 09 07, 4:55 AM