Marshall sees no boycott

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 8

Marshall sees no boycott

NZPA-Reuter Lusaka The New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marshall, said yesterday he was confident African nations would participate fully in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. Mr Marshall told a news conference at the end of a one-day visit to Zambia that New Zealand had severed sporting links with South Africa and he saw no repeat of the African boycott of the 1986 games in Scotland. "I have been given assurances in various places that providing our Government maintains its policy — and it will — there will be full African participation in the games,” he said. Mr Marshall, who has also visited Nigeria and Zimbabwe on his tour of Africa, said the Government would not allow any South African sports team or individual to play in New Zealand. It had also instructed New Zealand’s sporting bodies, including the New

Zealand Rugby Football Union, not to invite South African teams. “I don’t believe a racist sports team will ever come to New Zealand again,” Mr Marshall said, recalling the controversial 1981 visit by a South African rugby team which provoked violent protests. Dame Catherine Tizard, the Mayor of Auckland which will host the 1990 Games, echoed the Minis-

ter’s optimism. “We don’t see any roadblocks in the way to 1990 now. God willing, it should be a smooth ride,” she said. The Zambian Minister for Youth and Sport, Frederick Hapunda, told Dame Catherine his country would participate in the Auckland event. During his stay in Lusaka, Mr Marshall held talks with the Zambian President, Kenneth Kaunda, and with the African National Congress (A.N.C.) leaders at which he assured them of New Zealand’s firm opposition to apartheid. But he said the Government could not condone the use of violence or what he described as "acts of terrorism.” Mr Marshall said New Zealand would do all it could to pressure South Africa to spare six blacks — the so-called Sharpeville six — sentenced to hang for a political killing. He later flew back to Harare where he ends his tour today.