‘Blacklist’ decision soon?

Press, 4 February 1982, Page 8

‘Blacklist’ decision soon?

From

KEN COATES,

in London

A Christchurch man, Mr John H. Macdonald, may be removed from a United Nations “blacklist” of sportsmen who have had contact with apartheid South African sport.

Mr MacDonald was chairman of the organising committee for the World Association of Veteran Athletes’ Games, staged in Christchurch.

The United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid is considering taking Mr MacDonald off the list. But the committee is unlikely to remove Mr Walter Hadlee, also of Christchurch, a former member of the New Zealand Cricket Council, according to a top United nations official. The New Zealand Government has made representations to the United Nations on behalf of the two sportsmen, submitting that they were included on the list erroneously and should therefore be taken off. The director of the United Nations Centre Against Apartheid, Mr E. S. Reddy,

said a revised register of sportsmen would be issued in New York on February 22. The - composition of the “blacklist” was under consideration.

In the light of further evidence concerning Mr Macdonald, said Mr Reddy, the committee could consider the removal of his name. But with Mr Hadlee, it was a question of policy —. he had asserted that cricket in South Africa was non-racial when clearly the system of apartheid had a profound effect on the sport. The United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid has said repeatedly it would remove any name from the list if, the sportsman or sportswoman concerned announced refusal to have sports contact with South Africa, Br promote sporting exchanges. Mr Reddy was in London to attend the launching of a campaign by the Muhammad Ali Sports Development Association to the British public about apartheid.

Mr J. V. Gbeho, chairman of the United Nations Committee for Sanctions Against

South Africa, said that many young sportsmen and women were falling victim to propaganda by South Africa. “South Africa is trying by guile to buy international respectability, and we must expose it,” he said. Although there was not agreement at the United Nations on what action countries should take against sportsmen on the register, “there is increasing support for the idea,” said Mr Gbeho.

The dramatisation of the South African Springbok rugby tour of. the United

States and the public reaction had surprised the British Government, “and it was the same in New Zealand.” The chairman of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee, Mr Sam Ramsamy, said the present Minister for Sport in Britain had announced that he would not recognise the register. “We do not expect the British Government to recognise it because it is a guilty party,” he said. “Britain voted against this year becoming a time for mobilising sanctions against South Africa."