Published date17 July 2021
Those in attendance gathered for a night celebrating the 10th anniversary of the movement opposed to all rugby tours to and from South Africa.

They toasted the group’s biggest victory to date; defeating a proposed 1973 Springbok tour of New Zealand, which was ultimately prohibited by then Prime Minister Norman Kirk.

But it certainly wasn’t a case of “job done” as members officially launched a 500-day campaign to stop the Boks’ proposed 1981 tour of New Zealand.

At that stage the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) hadn’t formally invited the Springboks to tour. But it was rugby’s worst kept secret that that procedural step was a matter of when, not if.

As early as March 1980 — 16 months before the team flew into the country, starting 56 days of civil turmoil — Robert Muldoon’s National Government was pressured to take steps to stop the tour, including withholding entry visas. Within a month the Auckland Rugby Union, chaired by staunch pro-tour advocate Ron Don, had gone public with its support of a tour.

At the same time nationwide protests hit the streets.

They were small at first; about 30 attended a protest on Queen St on April 12 — walking behind actors dressed as All Blacks, roped together and led by rings through their paper noses by a duo of mock Springboks. That night about 50 people gathered outside the NZRU headquarters in Wellington.

On April 18 Don made an impassioned plea at the union’s annual general meeting in the same building for the tour to go ahead. Don — whose Auckland home was later peppered by a shotgun blast — told fellow delegates they had a “duty to the people who elect us, and the rugby people of New Zealand want the Springboks to tour here in 1981.

“Let us forget the humbug and hypocrisy of the politicians and stick to our job of promoting rugby”.

He said instead of taking aim solely at South Africa, those opposing the tour should “press similar concern for the rampant racial discrimination in the United States and Australia, just to name two countries with which we are closely associated”.

The NZRU had been presented with a letter from Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Talboys, with reference to the Gleneagles Agreement — signed in 1977 by Commonwealth leaders pledging support against apartheid — stating he was “deeply concerned” the tour might go ahead.

Around the same time HART went public with appeals for donations, hoping to raise at least $50,000 to help fight the tour.

Public support for the tour seemed to be growing. Just 34 per cent of respondents to a New Zealand Herald-National Research Bureau survey said they were opposed to it. NZRU chairman Ces Blazey described the poll result as “very useful”.

The Te Tai Tokerau District Māori Council offered majority support for the tour, with one member saying it would provide a chance to show the Springboks how Māori and Pākehā

lived in union. The Young Nats also did a U-turn on an earlier mooted remit urging the NZRU not to invite the Boks here, by saying South Africa was also a trading partner.

“A sporting matter” September 12 is a day of infamy in the anti-apartheid movement, especially in New Zealand. It was the day in 1977 when anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko was beaten to death by South African police in a Port Elizabeth cell. In 1980 it also became the date when the NZRU formally extended its tour invitation to the South African Rugby Board (SARB). The following year it was the date of the third and final test in the All Black-Springbok series; scene of the most violent and shocking of all protest clashes.

In explaining the invitation Blazey said the SARB was breaking down racial barriers; five of its seven national team selectors were non-white, mixed trials were held for all national teams and “any player in South Africa can progress to the highest level of his potential”.

He said it was now up to rugby officials to convince “the people that matter that the invitation has nothing to do with political issues at all and is purely a sporting matter”. He said it was inevitable there would be “differences of opinion” regarding the tour.

Blazey added: “We continue to believe that sporting boycotts are...

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