African tour specials

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 11

African tour specials

Derek Fox, TV2’s Wellington news editor who, with his two-man film crew, was barred from entering South Africa recently, will present the first of two news specials on his African tour tomorrow evening. "They Say We Let Them Down,” which replaces the previously advertised programme, “My. Honourable Mrs," examines black Africans attitudes in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya towards New Zealand, after the Montreal boycott. The idea of the news special was to try to clear up any possible misconceptions New Zealand may have about the boycott, giving the Africans a chance to explain their point of view. The programme includes interviews with the African leaders who called the boycott and New Zealanders working on aid projects in East Africa, and there is a special interview with Mr Taiboys which was recorded in Wellington earlier this week.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs recently returned from an extensive tour of East Africa and while the TV2 assignment was planned before Mr Taiboys’ trip was announced, part of the filming coincided with his visit to Kenya and Tanzania. Originally it was hoped the team would be able to visit South Africa to examine the much publicised change of sporting policy in order to give a balanced view on both sides of the argument. But in spile of a full explanation of what the programme proposed to do, the team learnt half-way

through its Black African assignment that they had been refused entry and . there has still been no explanation given as to why the application for a visa was turned down. “I can only presume the announced new sporting policy, which of course is very important to future sporting relationships between New Zealand and South Africa, does not stand up to public scrutiny,” Mr Fox said. The film crew which accompanied Mr Fox on tour were a cameraman, Leon Narbey and a soundman. Rod Wilson, both of Christchurch.