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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 34, Number 2. 1971

NZ/SA Sport Contacts

NZ/SA Sport Contacts

This year there are to be four tours of New Zealand by sporting teams from the Republic of South Africa. This month, March, there is a tour by a surf life saving team. In August there is to be a tour by a six man golf team. In September a Women's Hockey team will tour the country, and in November there will be a tour by a South African tennis team. In February, 1972, a New Zealand Softball team is to tour South Africa.

The All Blacks are back and it should now be apparent to all that the tour failed to achieve what its proponents had hoped it would. A multi-racial team played on the segregated sports fields of South Africa. It played against segregated teams, but it was hoped that such an action would be an example to the supporters of Apartheid that races can mix together happily in sport. The South African Minister of Sport, Mr. Frank Waring quashed a lot of hopes when he stated in a television interview that the All Black tour would not be the "Thin edge of the wedge" (as many Hertzog followers had said it would) which would lead to multi-racial sport in the Republic.

Sportswriter Terry Maclean writes in his book on the 1970 tour that unless there are significant changes in South Africa's sporting policies before 1973, he does not think that the Springboks should tour New Zealand that year. He cites the divisive effect such a tour would have on the New Zealand people with the possibility of violence as only one of his reasons. Maclean also wrote of the cool reception Chris Laidlaw received from the All Black's management when he continued to make his own investigations on the effects of Apartheid on the South African people and of the fact that Laidlaw did not like what he saw.

Abandonment of a rugby tour in 1973 would not be enough to salvage our ruined reputation. By that time we will have hosted at least four South African sports teams and had a New Zealand team touring South Africa. Rugby does not have the same significance to other nations of the world, especially the third world, that it does to us. To bring ourselves into line with the United Nations' resolutions banning sporting ties with South Africa we must sever all ties now, not just that of rugby in three years' time.

There is no denying, however, that when we have won rugby we will have won on all sports in New Zealand. Indeed when it is seen by fans of the game of Rugby that it is not only their sport being singled out for political attack, but all other sports that maintain and promote links with South Africa, they may begin to recognise the common principle behind the demonstrations. It is to be hoped that they will then begin to examine the principle and look past the rugby ball.

If, however, they do not, a successful lobby of the Labour Party and perhaps even of the National Party can be made in November 1972 when the elections come round again, Then, whether we like it or not, threat of violence will be a valuable weapon in the anti-tour campaign. In Britain it proved decisive in stopping the 1970 S.A. Cricket Tour. In New Zealand it can also be decisive, but only if the threat is as real a one as it had been in Britain the year before during disruption of the Springbok rugby team's games. If our ultimate aim is to stop the 1973 tour (and hopefully others before then) we must hit the four tours this year so hard it will be both uneconomical for the clubs concerned, and obviously bad politics for the Government to continue allowing the teams in. Our last resorts are of course the election meetings of 1972 when Vietnam will no longer be the main foreign policy issue.

However violence is only a minor weapon in the anti-Apartheid struggle in New Zealand. Public opinion is swinging, but it needs more leading. The public must have the facts put before them in a presentable way. Pamphlets on the issue of sporting ties with South Africa must be produced continuously in the two month intervals between tours. Actions such as paint-ups, teach-ins and press releases must keep the issue in the public eye this year. We must also act to strengthen our organisation to enable us effectively to mount such a campaign.

Stop the Tour

Stop the Tour

If you could see their national sport, you might be less keen to see their surfing