‘N.Z. likely to miss Olympics’

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 18

‘N.Z. likely to miss Olympics’

New Zealand was likely to be cut out of the 1980 Olympic Games at Moscow because of its sports links with South Africa, said the Rev. R. F. Wootton, secretary for justice and human rights with the Australian Council of Church, in Christchurch. Mr Wootton is visiting New Zealand at the invitation of the National Council of Churches. He said he wanted New Zealanders to know that people throughout the world were under the impression that New Zealand was close friends with South Africa because of sports contacts. These sports associations with South Africa would not be tolerated much longer by the rest of the world, he said, and if New Zealand played rugby with South Africa this year the Olympic committee was likely to show its frustration with the New Zealand Government’s policy and ban New Zealand from the Olympic Games. “People here are better than the image they give," Mr Wootton said. “New Zealand does not have to give itself the image of a racist society.” New Zealand could probably persuade South Africa to change some of its racist policies, because it was the only country that appeared to the rest of the world to accept those policies, said Mr Wootton. New Zealand’s relations with South Africa were extremely embarrassing to Australia, because they were clearly at odds with the Australian Government’s policy of anti-apartheid, he said. New Zealanders should realise that their future was so involved with Australia’s that it would be foolish not to aquaint themselves with the work that Australians

were doing against apartheid. Australians were being called on to boycott BP and Shell Oil products because the two companies had investment plans in South Africa. He thought it not unreasonable to blame the violence in Rhodesia on BP and Shell because they had bypassed British and United Nations sanctions for 10 years and ran oil into Rhodesia. If the sanction had been effective, Rhodesia would have been forced to bring in changes quickly. “We will not buv the argument that there has to be a blood bath in South Africa to overcome apartheid.” said Mr Wootton. Instead, his council was calling on the Western world to reduce its investments in South Africa to show South Africa that it must make changes. If that was not done before the turn of the century Christianity would no longer be acceptable to black people.