Zimbabwe ban qualified

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 36

Zimbabwe ban qualified

NZPA . Salisbury Zimbabwe will not allow its sportsmen and sportswomen to compete against anyone who has sporting ties with South Africa, said its Sports Minister, Ernest Kadungure, yesterday. Mr Kadungure confirmed that the Zimbabwe Government had banned the Irish Greystones rugby club from playing in Zimbabwe because it is a member of the Irish Rugby Union, which has links with South Africa. Mr Kadungure commented

yesterday; “Zimbabwe, as a member of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, will not allow its sporting bodies, and its sportsmen and women, to compete or participate in any form of sport with sporting bodies or individuals whose federations, unions, clubs or individuals have sporting ties with South Africa.” Ireland’s rugby team is to tour South Africa from May 9 to June 6 and the president of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, Mr David Morgan,

said there was no hope of salvaging the Greystones tour of the country,- which led to the British Barbarians cancelling their scheduled mid-May tour. Mr Morgan said they were “caught up as innocent pawns in a struggle outside the realism of sport. “In respect of Greystones, they could hardly be more innocent in that neither their club nor their players, who were to tour Zimbabwe, have ever been to South Africa,” he said.