Springbok exclusion a blow

Press, 6 October 1987, Page 60

Springbok exclusion a blow

NZPA London The exclusion of the Springboks from the rugby World Cup In New Zealand and Australia was “unquestionably a blow” for South Africa, a Commonwealth Secretariat report said yesterday. “Rugby lies close to the heart of the South Africans — and particularly the Afrikaners — and their anguish at being barred from the event was palpable,” it said. The report, which is to form a basis for discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting laVancouver this. mooth.reViews theperiod

since the last Commonwealth summit at Nassau two years ago. In the report’s introduction, Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal said the situation in South Africa remained "high on the list” of Commonwealth concerns. In South Africa there had been “no change in the disposition of power, no move towards democratic dispensation, little alleviation in the rigours of a system that robs millions of their human dignity.” But success in efforts to isolate South Africa from InterttattOnali sport had : been,;; attaidiyd

Commonwealth support for the 10-year-bld Gleneagles Agreement the report said. “South Africa’s exclusion from the international sporting calendar has become such a day-to-day fact of life that the few occasions on which it takes place attract a blaze of publicity bound the world-” The few encounters between Commonwealth and South African teams had tended to be rebel tours — like that by New Zea- , land’s Cavaliers in 1986. These tours, “unsanctioned by official bodies defiance , of their led to the suspen-

sion of the sports people concerned from legitimate international sport and attracted wide condemnation, it said. “The exclusion of South Africa from the recent inaugural World Cup for rugby, in which action the Governments of Australia and New Zealand were prominently involved, was unquestionably a blow to South Africa. “This exclusion suggests the rygby community is a progressing towards a a"/policy >on South Africa in line with that adopted by the overwhelming, majpr- ■ of‘world’; and wqimjl” .