Black Barred, Whites Boycott S. Africa Meet

The sponsor of a major high school track tournament withdrew its support today, and 100 white athletes announced a boycott because a black student was barred from competing.

The decision to keep a black student athlete from taking part in the Annual South African Foundation Schools Athletics Meeting this weekend prompted 100 out of 279 white athletes from 13 Natal province schools to announce a boycott.

Nkululeko (Squeegee) Skweyiya, 17, a sprinter and relay runner, was to represent his integrated private Durban-area high school at the games. But Menlo Park High School in Pretoria, host for the games for 15 years, barred him because he is black.

According to news reports, Skweyiya was the only nonwhite among 1,500 high school athletes scheduled to compete. The reports said no black had ever competed in the games.

Skweyiya’s father, Louis, is a lawyer in Durban, capital of Natal province.