Beware the Sham

Will Kirk Take the Easy Way Out

Latest developments in the Springbok tour issue indicate that the whitewashing of apartheid in sport may be on. Prime Minister Kirk announced last Monday that an important announcement could be made today or later this week. The same night the radio programme "Checkpoint" featured Johannesburg journalist Stanley Uys and the South African Rugby Hoard's Dr Danie Craven. Their remarks gave the impression that the South African Government would reverse its previous hard line stand and allow mixed trials to be held for the Springbok team.

Such an announcement would suit Kirk very well. He could allow the team to come, thus answering complaints about Government interference in sport, and at the same time demand that the anti-apartheid movement take no action against the tour because the threatened boycott had led to the easing of apartheid in sport.

The fallacy of such an argument becomes obvious when the structure of rugby administration in South Africa is examined and the previous comments of Dr Craven recalled.

There are four rugby controlling bodies in the home of apartheid. On the one side is the 20,000 member South African Rugby Union headed by Mr Abdul Abass and on the other, Craven's South African Rugby Hoard and two stooge bodies, of small membership, catering for Coloureds and "Bantus". Only Abass' union is firmly non-racial and refuses to compromise with apartheid.

Last year on "Gallery", Crave PI mentioned the possibility of mixed trials for "Coloureds". if mixed trials were to be held later this year, then the South African Rugby Union would consider only the small stooge bodies and either ignore Abass' union altogether or condemn him as an intransigent black who would never be satisfied.

The broader question remains, Even if all the unions agreed to the trials, and even if a few black players were included in the Springboks, would black miners get another rand in their pockets and would thousands of black children get their first decent meal in their lives? In brief would apartheid come to an end? The answer is, obviously, no, and for this reason, New Zealand must not accept the whitewashing of apartheid sport.