ATHLETICS SA (ASA) has admitted it erred by differentiating between black and coloured athletes in its racial profiling of the squad for the African championships.
The ethnicity of the 37 athletes and nine managers is listed along with their specialities on the team list, of which 25 are white, six are black and six are coloured.
"The coloured reference was a mistake from our office," ASA president Aleck Skhosana said in an email.
"The correct colour should be black and white as per [the national] Constitution."
The management team, 33% of which is white, did not include a coloured reference. Skhosana defended ASA's racial profiling, saying it was "based on the transformation charter that needs ASA to indicate the race or demography of a person".
"The process is an internal one which helps us to complete our close-out report for the government funding and other funders.
"Our association needs to give a breakdown of how many black, white, male and female [athletes are] in our team."
Twenty-four members of the team are male.
The team list was also greeted with surprise in athletics circles because it omitted all middle- and long-distance athletes, even the only two who are in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games - 800m runner Andre Olivier and 1500m competitor Johan Cronje.
Despite the team list being labelled as final, Skhosana insisted it had yet to be finalised.
ASA 'mistake' in racial profiling
ATHLETICS SA (ASA) has admitted it erred by differentiating between black and coloured athletes in its racial profiling of the squad for the African championships.
The ethnicity of the 37 athletes and nine managers is listed along with their specialities on the team list, of which 25 are white, six are black and six are coloured.
"The coloured reference was a mistake from our office," ASA president Aleck Skhosana said in an email.
"The correct colour should be black and white as per [the national] Constitution."
The management team, 33% of which is white, did not include a coloured reference. Skhosana defended ASA's racial profiling, saying it was "based on the transformation charter that needs ASA to indicate the race or demography of a person".
"The process is an internal one which helps us to complete our close-out report for the government funding and other funders.
"Our association needs to give a breakdown of how many black, white, male and female [athletes are] in our team."
Twenty-four members of the team are male.
The team list was also greeted with surprise in athletics circles because it omitted all middle- and long-distance athletes, even the only two who are in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games - 800m runner Andre Olivier and 1500m competitor Johan Cronje.
Despite the team list being labelled as final, Skhosana insisted it had yet to be finalised.
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