SEGREGATION FAILS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 13

SEGREGATION FAILS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) GERMISTON (Transvaal), Jan. 7. South Africa’s strict laws on segregation in sport were broken yesterday.

A racially-mixed crowd of 1500 milled around after the national hero, Gary Player, at the start of the Professional Golfers’ Association tournament. The Government had permitted non-whites to attend the tournament but ordered they must keep apart from whites. But the jostling crowd that followed Player and his part-:

ners from the first tee included about 300 Africans. The police tried in vain to separate them. As the tournament progressed the crowd dispersed over the course and all attempts to enforce segregation were abandoned. Indian Player Playing in the tournament for the first time was the Durban-born Indian, Sewsunker Sewgolum, the first non-white golfer ever to take part in the association’s tournaments. It is nearly five years since he crashed the “apartheid barrier” in sport by competing in the South African Open. Sewgolum was given Government permission to play l

in the tournament provided he uses separate facilities from white golfers for eating, bathing and changing. The luxury caravan he usually uses at tournaments did not arrive in time and he used the club secretary’s house instead. The Natal Golf Union said tonight in Durban the union had received a letter from from the Department of Community Development saying that Sewgolum would not be allowed to play in the-Natal Open next month. No reason was given. Sewgolum won the Natal Open last year from Gary Player. Because he could not enter the club house, he stood outside in the rain to receive his prize.