Zambia threaten a boycott

Press, 7 March 1988, Page 23

Zambia threaten a boycott

NZPA-Reuter Lusaka Zambia has threatened to boycott both the World Cross-country Championships in New Zealand and the women's 15km road race in Australia this month if the South African-born runner, Zola Budd, takes part. Senior members of the Zambia Amateur Athletic Association said today that the association had written to the organisers of; both competitions asking them' to confirm whether Budd, who has taken British nationality, would participate. “If Zola Budd is participating. Zambia will not send a team,” the association's secretary, Godfrey Mwanza, told the "Times of Zambia.” Mwanza said Budd’s British citizenship was “cosmetic” and if Zambian athletes ran alongside her in the events this would be tantamount to

Zambia’s condoning Soutji Africa’s apartheid system The association's vicechairman, John Mufalal , told the "Zambian Daily Mail" the association considered Budd to be South African. ! “Her views against the black man are the same, though jshe lives in Britain." he said. Zambia, whose President, Kenneth Kaunda, is chairman! of the Organisation of African Unity, has been at the forefront off efforts to isolate South Africa politically and economically and bar it from international sports and cultural • events. I in the | meantime, Budd has warmed up for her world championship bid by winning a 5000 m crosscountry' race at Aldershol England, i ! She completed the course in exactly IB minutes, 32 seconds ahead of her England teammate, Carol Mijovic.