On 12 July 2014, my uncle, Chris de Broglio, died.  I only met him once in my life, in Cape Town, and I cannot seem to find the photograph of that meeting now.  Ironically I was in Cape Town to make a representation, on behalf of the Johannesburg Attorneys Association, to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on justice. They wanted to move the Randburg and Sandton Magistrates’ Court to fall under the jurisdiction of Pretoria unbelievably, and I was there to make a submission as to why that would not be a good idea.  

My uncle was a weightlifting champion in South Africa for many years and got into trouble because he started training black weightlifters, something that was not appreciated.  Eventually, he campaigned successfully via SANROC for the expulsion of South Africa from international football as well as the Olympic Games and that international sports isolation obviously had its role to play in ultimately ending apartheid.  He was awarded the Olympic Order for his work against racism and when I asked him if he had written anything about his involvement, he sent me the document that I have loaded here (http://onlinelaw.co.za/docs/The_SANROC_story.pdf), which will allow anybody who is interested in the story to read a lot more, including why he left South Africa after being harassed by the security police and the considerable efforts involved in having South Africa banned from the Olympic Games.