St George's Park History

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Unification

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The Hertzog Bills of the early 1930’s made serious inroads into the human rights of the indigenous people which culminated into the removal of Blacks from the Common Voter’s Roll in 1936 while the Wilcock’s Commission of 1937 recommended the establishment of a Coloured Affairs Department which would also remove the Coloureds from the Common Voter’s Roll.

War intervened before the latter could be implemented and the subsequent events transformed an apolitical indigenous people into one imbued with militancy and political awareness. They started to clamour for their rights.

The catalyst, World War II, asseverated the independence of European colonies in Africa and Asia. World War II also accelerated the process of democracy and thereby spreading the ethos of equality, liberty and fraternity.

Sport was targeted as a conduit to achieve unity. Cricket was the first code to apply this principle by espousing the view that a single controlling body would be far more effective than the racially and religious divisive bodies operating from club to national level.