Black bishop’s passport held

Press, 18 April 1981, Page 1

Black bishop’s passport held

The passport of a black Anglican Bishop who was to have visited Cnristchurch in November has been confiscated by the South African security police. Bishop Desmond Tutu, an outspoken opponent of apartheid, was to have been the guest speaker at the Christchurch Cathedral centennial celebration-. He was also to have attended the Methodist Conference and Presbyterian Assembly, both of which wib. be held in Christchurch during November.

The New Zealand Press Association reports that two plain clothes policemen called at the Bishop’s Soweto township home and ordered him to hand over his passport. The Bishop, who is general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, angered the white South African Government recently during a tour of the United States and Weste-n capitals, in which he called for a halt to foreign investment in the republic.

The South African Prime Minister (Mr Pieter Botha) told an election meeting last week, “Bishop Tutu’s passport will definitely be withdrawn.” The Bishop said last evening: “Mr Botha is really just a pathetic little bully. He will find there will come a time when he will be rushing to beg us to * ke back the passport.” The general secretary of the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, the Rev. Angus MacLeod, said last evening that he

would like to see posters throughout New Zealand asking why white South Africans were allowed to play rugby when the Bishop was denied the right to leave. Mr MacLeod said, that he was most concerned th. ': Bishop Tutu, who spoke for millions of black South Africans, had been denied the right to speak outside his country. The national chairperson of HART, Ms Pauline McKay, said that the seizing of the Bishop’s passport was “another effort

by the South African Government to silence its critics ruthlessly.” The Bishop had joined “the growing ranks” of South Africans denied the right of travel, Ms McKay said.

“How just is it that a Springbok rugby side is promoted by the South African Government to tour New Zealand when sincere and knowledgeable critics of apartheid are denied the right to come here?” she said.