How did 22 years of isolation affect on weightlifting life in South Africa?
During 1980 I realized that we must keep the morale of our lifters up and I introduced a plan where we selected South African A and B teams to compete, with national colors awarded. In this way, under very difficult circumstances, our sport was kept alive. In 1987 both Hester and myself resigned from the Federation but stayed on in an advisory capacity. Finally in February 1990 our politicians came to their senses and our state President Mr. de Klerk made his famous speech in Parliament to scrap “apartheid” and released Nelson Mandela from Robben Island. I immediately arranged a meeting with the non-white weightlifting federation in South Africa to form one body before applying for South Africa’s re-admittance to the IWF. I also wrote to the IWF informing them of our progress. I chaired the meeting with the so-called non-white body on 14 September 1991 in Cape Town and one body called the SA Weightlifting Federation was established. I also thanked Mr de Klerk for his guts to stop “apar
