Chch action group backs Thatcher’s S.A. stand

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 24

Chch action group backs Thatcher’s S.A. stand

The stand of the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, on South African sanctions has been supported by a Christchurch action group, Truth About South Africa (T.A.S.A.). T.A.S.A.’s spokesman, Mr David Dumergue, of Christchurch, said Mrs Thatcher’s statement repudiating the official line taken at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth leaders’ meeting revealed her as the “only leader with any brains.”

Mr Dumergue said it was time New Zealand

stopped interfering in the internal affairs of South Africa. “It’s time they stopped trying to destabilise the only stable economy in sub-Saharan Africa. “The world in general and Africa in particular cannot afford another experiment in one-party dictatorship,” he said. The call for economic sanctions against South Africa suggested the Commonwealth leaders had no regard for the ordinary people of South Africa, Mr Dumergue said. It that was of such great concern to them

then the slaughter of animals in black Africa should also be of concern. Endangered animals in Africa and drift-net fishing had been on the agenda at the Commonwealth leaders’ meeting, but it was a littleknown fact that there were 4500 black rhinos in South Africa and only 16 in the rest of the continent, he said. If South Africa was ruled by the African National Congress the white population would leave en masse, and game reserves would be run down, he said.