South Africa

From around the 1960s, until the abandonment of apartheid during the early 1990s, South Africa was a pariah state. Foreign governments, multinational corporations and religious leaders all condemned apartheid. For their part, international sporting organisations, including FIFA and the IOC, instituted a sporting boycott, which resulted in the isolation of South Africa from virtually all international sporting competition. By contrast, since the first post-apartheid elections in 1994, South Africa has become a regular focal point for the sporting world, hosting a plethora of international sporting tournaments, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 1996 and 2013 African Nations (football) Cups, the 2003 Cricket World Cup and, perhaps most notably of all, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, the transformation in the position of South Africa on the international sporting stage should not obscure the extent of the challenge faced by South African sporting organisations and (particularly public) broadcasters in the post-apartheid era. To a greater or lesser degree, over the last couple of decades, sporting organisations and broadcasters have both attempted to use sport as a means to contribute toward the wider objectives of nation-building, reconciliation, democratisation and cultural diversity in the new South Africa. However, the pursuit of these objectives has taken place (and continues to do so) against the backdrop of an increasingly marketised South African broadcasting system.