Isolation of S.A. in sport urged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 21

Isolation of S.A. in sport urged

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)-; NEW YORK, March 26. A United Nations body has advocated the “total isolation of South Africa in the field of sports.”

The sub-committee on petitions of the General Assembly’s Special Committee on Apartheid also favoured the boycotting of goods of countries which “collaborated with South Africa.”

Calling this an important new development, it said that campaigns against banks which invested in South Africa were “valuable in educating public opinion and showing the infamous role played by foreign investments” in the republic. These campaigns made people “aware that such interests are very advantageous to the racist regime in South Africa and are evil in effect, in that they delay the liberation of the people of South Africa,” the subcommittee’s report to its parent body said. The document said that there had been a recent "resurgence” of anti-apartheid activity, the movement becoming more militant. It said: “This renewed activity is reflected in the boycott of racist South African sports teams in England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in the campaign against the supply of arms to South Africa, in the decisions of Churches and other groups to provide material support to liberation movements, in the springing up

of many committees for solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa in countries such as the Fed-

eral Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Japan, and in the increasing force with which the black community in the United States denounces the racist regime of South Africa.” “The very successful sports boycott of South Africa shows what public opinion, supported by governments opposed to apartheid, can achieve.

“The campaign will, however, need to be continued to ensure the total isolation of South Africa in the field of sports.”