July 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1429

CAPE TOWN, July 29: The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic committee boycotted a meeting of parliament's sports committee on Tuesday after a senior lawmaker said it was dominated by “whites and Indians” at the expense of the black majority.

Olympic committee chairman Moss Mashishi — who is black — said this description was “racist, derogatory and utterly repugnant” and boycotted the meeting only a few days ahead of the opening of the Beijing Games, incurring the wrath of ruling African National Congress lawmakers who likened the no-show to anarchy.

South African sport is regularly rocked by race rows. Critics say that national sports like cricket and even rugby have made strides in opening up to blacks sidelined under apartheid, but that many Olympic sports like cycling, swimming and equestrian still need to do much more.

Parliamentary sports committee chairman Butana Komphela said in an interview earlier this month with the Mail and Guardian newspaper that the Olympic committee was “full of whites and Indians who don’t understand transformation and lack vision.”

Komphela has refused to distance himself from those remarks and they were echoed by several ruling African National Congress members in parliament on Tuesday.

Lawmakers resolved to seek legal advice on action it could take against the Olympic committee. In a letter read out at Tuesday’s meeting, Mashishi said he would take his complaints of racism to South Africa's national Human Rights Committee.—AP