ANC Approves S. African Team in the Olympics

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The African National Congress, setting aside one of its most powerful political weapons, gave the go-ahead Wednesday for the South African team to compete in this month’s Summer Olympics--the country’s first Olympic appearance in 32 years.

The ANC, which broke off talks with the white government last week in protest over a township massacre, originally had called on South African athletes to boycott the Olympics.

But the ANC’s top policy-makers did an about-face Wednesday in a compromise with South Africa’s Olympic committee, which agreed to insist that all competitors wear stickers or armbands that read: “Peace and Democracy.”

Although the boycott was one of the ANC’s most effective sanctions against white South Africa, the ANC would have risked losing political support at home if it had followed through on its threat to renew those sanctions and yank South Africa’s team from the Olympics at this late hour.

Of the 96-member South African Olympic team, only 11 are black. And many whites in the country already have complained about the local Olympic committee’s decision, under ANC pressure, to compete under a neutral flag.