NOCSA announces SA participation in Olympic games

Sam Ramsamy, president of The National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA), announced South Africa's acceptance of an invitation to participate in the Olympic Games in Barcelona in June, 1992. He further announced that the South African team would not be singing the country's national anthem, The Call of South Africa, but instead the Olympic hymn, Beethoven's Ode to Joy. A new flag under which the team would compete was also unveiled. It was agreed that both hymn and new flag would be used until such time South Africa has negotiated a democratic dispensation and adopted a new anthem and flag. These decisions outraged sections of the White community, including President F.W. de Klerk, who announced that national symbols had nothing to do with apartheid. References: Keesing's Record of World Events, News Digest for November 1991, p. 38560