An exploration of Pillay’s life dispels the notion of weightlifters and body builders as lacking political agency. His legacy created opportunities for other sports people.
A younger Dennis Brutus, president of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee in Montreal, Canada in 1976.
Neil Leifer /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Sport participation in South Africa remains rooted in the dilemmas of colonial society. It necessitates an ongoing need for discourse, debate and dialogue on decolonisation in sport history.