H.A.R.T.’s protest call

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 18

H.A.R.T.’s protest call

PA Wellington Halt AH Racist Tours has asked the Government to protest about the withdrawal of the passport of a South African sports official. The official, Mr M. N. Pather, general-secretary of the • South African Council on Sport was intending to visit New Zealand in October. H.A.R.T. recently received a telegram from Mr Pather, saying his passport had been withdrawn and he would not be able to come to New Zealand. In a telegram to the Minister of Foreign Af(Mr Talboys), H.A.R.T.’s national organiser, Miss Pauline McKay, called on

the Government to “vigorously and publicly protest to the South African authorities about the withdrawal of the passport." Mr Father’s passport was collected by policemen acting for the Department of the Interior a day before he was due to leave on an overseas trip. He was to take up a three-month appointment as adviser and consultant to the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid. Mr Pather has had a lot of difficulty getting a passport, according to S.A.C.O.S. which said this latest action was that of “a frightened group of white South Africans afraid of letting the world

know the true sports situation in this country.’’ After Mr Father’s passport expired in 1966, he applied several times without success during the next 13 years. In December. last year, his most recent application was rejected. “Then out of the blue and without a formal application before it, the Department of the Interior informed Mr Pather that if he called at its office a passport would be awaiting collection.” S.A.C.O.S. now sees that ‘‘strange decision” as one in response to the visit of British and French factfinding commissions, who were in South Africa then.