A very controvesial speaker was heard in the Union Hall last Tuesday, Michael Lapsley, a New Zealand priest who has lived in South Africa for the last 6 years and believes that armed struggle is the only solution to the problems faced by the Blacks of South Africa.

Michael Lapsely went to South Africa in 1973 as a student as became chaplin of the University of South Africa in 1976. Soon after the Soweto riots, because of his anti-apartheid activities, he had to flee South Africa for Lesotho, a tiny independent nation within South Africa. Lapsley believes that, the Blacks in South Africa have only two choices; either to submit or to fight. The urgent task facing the Black people is to overthrow apartheid and replace it with a government that represents the majority of South Africans.

According to Lapsley New Zealander have trouble making up their minds about South Africa because they hear contradictory opinions. We hear plenty from the South African government through their consulate which New Zealand continues to harbour. Seldom do we hear the voice of the black people in New Zealand.

When Lapsley went to South Africa he believed the most important thing about himself was that he was a human being. In South Africa he was treated not as a human being but as a white man. The colour of his skin determined what university he went to, what suburb he lived in, what movie theatre he went to etc.