Africans Want Tour Cancelled

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 1

Africans Want Tour Cancelled

New Zealand will do the non-white people of South Africa a great service if it cancels the projected 1970 All Black tour of that country, says a statement issued by the African National Congress.

The congress, founded in Johannesburg in 1912, has frequently protested against “discriminatory” laws and was declared illegal in 1960 by the South African Government. It “represents the oppressed non-white people of South Africa,” and has its headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia.

The statement, which was sent to Mr R. H. T. Thompson, reader in psychology and sociology at the University

of Canterbury, is signed by Mr Alfred Kgokong. the A.N.C.’s director of publicity and information.

The congress appeals to all sportsmen in New Zealand to mount a massive campaign against sending a Rugby team to South Africa in 1970. “We need not stress,” it says, “that if any Maori players are included in the New Zealand side it will in no way make it possible for that side to compete against nonwhite teams in South Africa. “The South African Government will enforce the rigid apartheid regulations, which forbid whites to play against non-whites inside South Africa.

“That brings us to the crux of the matter. Does New Zealand want to accept the humiliating and condescending treatment which ‘honorary White’ status for the Maoris really means? Do the Maoris

want to play against whites only?

“Is It good sporting morality to refuse racial discrimination against the Maoris whilst on tour in South Africa and at the same time ignore the same vile racialist practice when it is meted out to South African non-white

sportsmen? This point cannot be stressed too much.

“We shall leave the fate of the 1970 All Black tour of South Africa on the conscience, good sense and human decency of the people of New Zealand. The world is watching your decision. “It should never be forgotten that our international campaign against apartheid in sport is intended to achieve fair play for all sports people in our country. The politics of apartheid have rigidly separated the sportsmen of the various racial groups on the ground of colour alone.

“This is a flagrant violation of the generally accepted rules in the different sporting codes. We appeal to you to help us eradicate politics from sport, to assist to build and foster the common fellowship that sports and culture are meant to engender among all men.

“It is your duty to do everything in your power to bring

sanity to those whose thinking has been blurred by adherence to principles of white supremacy and racial arrogance. “We want to build a nonracial democratic society in South Africa where New Zealand teams and sportsmen from everywhere in the world will feel free to play. “Your decision is vital in this matter,” says the statement. “Reject any sports relations with South Africa as long as apartheid is practised as Government policy."