Visitor sees greater opposition to tour

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 4

Visitor sees greater opposition to tour

More New Zealanders are opposed to this year’s Springbok tour than werej against the planned visit by the South Africans in 1976, according to Mr Henry Isaacs, a member of a prominent black African liberation movement.

Mr Isaacs is a member of the Pan Fricanist Congress, and is in New Zealand for two weeks at the invitation of HART to help further build support for the campaign to stop the Springbok rugby tour.

Now based in New York working for the United Nations, Mr Isaacs studied law at the Victoria University of Wellington from 1975 to '1977. Mr Isaacs does not believe that people are more opposed to tile tour because of the effect it will have on N Zealand, but on moral grounds. “People are more against the principle of apartheid than they were in 1976,” he said.

I Although' Mr Isaacs sees [some breakdowns in aparI theid in the field of sport, it has not improved at the same rate throughout other sectors of South African society. “Whites in South Africa began to pressure the administrations when their sports contacts were first: cut off, but further progress has been slow ” he said.

“The only way left is for a combination of pressure from inside and support from other countries. “I am committed to an arms struggle and violence in other countries has often come as a response to oppression. “In the next two to five years I can see a sharp deterioration in the present situation with armed conflict reaching the levels experienced in Zimbabwe four years ago,” he said. Recent strikes by workers, students and journalists and opposition from black clergymen - indicated the unity of the movement: against white oppression, Mr Isaacs said.

“Our opposition is based on the will of the people. Ultimately we will have a society in which all persons can participate and not just a few,” he said. "I can see it is happening. lan Smith once said there would never be majorityrule in Zimbabwe in 1000 years and look what has happened. “It is difficult to put a time scale on it, but it is the will of the people,” he said.

Mr Isaacs will return to New York next month when a new series of sports and cultural boycotts will be dis-

cussed. It is believed that under the United Nations Charter, mandatory economic boycotts will be introduced on the ground that

' the present situation in i South Africa is a threat to I international national peace • and security.