President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the family of anti-apartheid activist and former president of the South African Council on Sport (Sacos) Frank van der Horst, noting that his passing makes citizens recall an era of grassroots, non-racial and inter-sectoral resistance to apartheid, and international support for the country’s struggle.

Van der Horst passed away on Monday at the age of 86.

Ramaphosa said that as part of the generational leadership of Norman Naidoo, Hassan Howa, Morgan Naidoo and Joe Ebrahim, Van der Horst made a crucial contribution as Sacos president to the sustained political pressure faced by the apartheid system in its last years.

“Today, South African sport continues to benefit from Frank van der Horst’s and Sacos’s legacy in the form of administrators who played their sport under the Sacos banner and now lead sports development in our country as well as federations and teams who are welcome throughout the world,” he explained.

Established in 1973, Sacos fought against racial segregation in South African sport and campaigned for equal access to facilities under the slogan “No normal sport in an abnormal society”.

Ramaphosa highlighted that Sacos worked closely with civic organisations, youth movements, trade unions and underground liberation structures on numerous campaigns and protests.

Sacos resisted South Africa’s participation in international sport with only white athletes, Ramaphosa said.

Through its recognition by the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid Sport and the global anti-apartheid movement, Sacos exercised sport as a platform through which to highlight the impact of apartheid on all areas of the lives of oppressed communities, he explained.

Ramaphosa extended his condolences to the friends and associates nationally and globally of Van der Horst as well as the generation of athletes who practised their sport while Van der Horst led the non-racial sports movement.

“As a nation, we are grateful for a struggle Frank waged with courage, principle and clarity. His values and the example he set will sustain us while he rests in peace,” Ramaphosa said.