Rugby tours at risk

Press, 17 April 1979, Page 18

Rugby tours at risk

iNZPA Paris French anti - apartheid groups say they will use everything in their power to stop the South African rugby team from touring France in November, including a pos-1 sibie trade-union of the French rugby tour of New Zealand beginning in June.

The latest wave of indignation in France against sports contact with South Africa was prompted by the execution of the black nationalist, Solomon Mahlangu, in Pretoria.

Leading the protests is the French Communist Party which made its feelings clear in its official newspaper, “L’ Humanite.” The newspaper called for the French Government to respect the United Nations resolution condemning all sports contacts with South Africa.

According to “L’Humanite” the French Communist party has also sent a telegram of protest to the French President (Mr Valery Giscard D'Estaing) calling for the tour to be stopped. In a separate editorial, “L’Humanite” called the South African rugby sides “soldiers of apartheid” and pointed out that France was the only country which continued to welcome them. The Transvaal tour reaches the height of indecency, while in South Africa another 110 ‘Solomons’ await execution and the prisons overflow,” it said.

Tile French Rugby Union Federation has also received a letter from the French Communist Party calling for the tours to be stopped. The

letter said mat the French people did not understand why, in the light of the execution of Solomon Mahlangu, the proposed tours had not been cancelled. Mr Henri Garcia, a wellknown French sports journalist, wrote in the sports daily, “L’Equipe,” that he objected to the timing of the South African multi-racial team tour. "How could they have planned the South African tour of France, for eight months before the Moscow Olympic Games, when it was known that the All Blacks tour of South Africa in 1976 threw the Montreal Olympics into confusion?” he said. The Press Association reported that the chairman of the Halt All Racist Tours organisation (Mr Trevor Richards) said the Organisation of African Unity had urged H.A.R.T. to “campaign strenuously” against the 1981 Springbok rugby team tour and to send a representative to Addis Ababa in early 1980 to discuss the campaign’s progress. H.A.R.T. discussed the request at a management committee meeting and decided to recommend to the movement’s national council that the invitation be accepted. Mr Richards said that he had received many requests on his recent overseas trip from government officials, sports bodies, and international bodies for H.A.R.T. to keep them fully informed of developments relating to the 1981 tour. He said that he would recommend that H.A.R.T. take the opportunity provided by the O.A.U. invitation to visit as many

u concerned parties as posi sible. -■ Asked what the O.A.U. -i wanted from the New Zeas land Government. Mr Richards said that this had been - spelt out clearly by the ■ assistant secretary-general of! ; O.A.U. (Dr P. Onu) in a let-/ ■ ter H.A.R.T. had released a < fortnight ago. Dr Onu said ' 11 that the New Zealand Gov-jl ■ ieminent, as a signatory’ top J the Gleneagles Agreement,!' fl must take all practical steps’ /to ensure an end to allh J sports contacts with South p [ Africa. ] f ' — ■ "