for release:

MULDERGATE SCANDAL FIGURE IS DIRECTLY TIED TO SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY TOUR OF THE UNITED STATES

The Stop the Rugby Tour coalition has released documents that prove that Louis Luyt, a key figure in the South African Minis try of Information Scandal, has helped to finance the Eastern Rugby Foot- ball Union. Luyt gave the ERFU $25,000 irb December 1980, the same month that the ERFU extended an invitation to the South African Springbok rugby team to play in the United States this September. Luyt was the financial conduit for the South African Government in several of ib illegal schemes that were exposed in 1978-79 and re- sulted in the toppling of the Government of Prime Minister . The Ministry of Information gave Luyt $7 million to buy the liberal Engl ish -language newspaper group which publishes the Rand Dailv Mail, the Cape Times and the two Johannesburg weeklies, the Sunday Times and the udav Ex~ress. When Luyt ' s bid failed, the Ministry Secretary, , gave Luyt $14 million to launch the Citizen. The Ministry then maintained strict editorial control of the Citizen as it put forth the Government view under the guise of being an independent newspaper. According to the London Times of 3 November 1978, the $14 million was laundered through a Swiss front company set up by the Ministry.

Luyt was also Executive Directzr of the Committee for Fair Play in Sport. The Committee was exposed as another front operation of the Ministry after it spent several million dollars taking out full page ads in the major Western newspapers in an attempt to convince the world that South African sport had been integrated and that they should be allowed to compete internationally. The documents revealing Luyt 's backing of the tour of the United States were passed to Dr. Richard Lapchick from a sympathizer inside the ERFU. He contacted Lapchick after reading about the SART coali- tion in a newspaper article. Lapchick is a co-convenor of SART and the National Chairperson of ACCESS, the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society.

Lapchick charged that the staging of the tour in the United States could be"a deliberate attempt by the South African Gawernment to sabotage the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The African nations have made it clear that the US will face a boycott if the tour takes place. wants to increase the rift between Black Africa and the United States. If the Socialist countries joined the boycott th South Africa would have also affected the broadening of the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. All of these things would, of course, bring South Africa closer to the United States and its allies in Western Europe." (continued)

STOP THE APARTHEID RUGBY TCW-7 Supreme Court Judge William Booth, SART1s Chairperson and also President of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), has maintained from the start that @'the South African Government is behind the tour. These revelations about Luyt leave no room for doubt. We now hope that the tour will be cancelled immediately. The United States cannot afford to be inv~lvedin another Muldergate Scandal."

Tom Selfridge, the President of the Eastern Rugby Football Union, claimed there was no connection between the $25,000 and the invitation to the Springboks. He said the ERFU is not political but is solely interested in the promotion of rugby.

A look at rugby union documents is revealing. The total 1981 budget of the ERFU is $32,000. Therefore, the $25,000, which is a figure added on to the $32,000, represents a significant amount of money. Lapchick raised the question as to how the ERFU, with such a small budget, financed a 1976 tour of South Africa or how the United States team "unofficially" toured South Africa in 1978? "It is a very good possibility that Ministry of Information money paid for those trips which occured during the height of the scandal period. With Luyt's new gift, it is obvious that the funds continue. 'I

For a non-political body, the ERFU made a strange decision when it sent a letter to United States corporations asking for financial support for the tour. The letter, signed by Selfridge and circulated in June, said "your company will benefit from this support in the South African community ...y our company can either be recognized in the program or remain anonymous." Adeyemi Bundele, a SART co-convenor and International Affairs Officer of the National Black United Front, said that "the solicitation of corporate support for the South African team makes the rugby union's position it is not political into a ridiculous one. "

Dr. John Logan, the President of the Ten Good Men Rugby Club, revealed that there is considerable dissension among rugby people over the tour. He contends that the ERFU raised club dues from $80 to $400 to stifle the dissent since they gave the clubs promising opportunities to raise the $400 by selling tickets to the matches, ads in tRe programs, etc., to assure the success of the tour. Logan said this move is bitterly opposed by many clubs. Mike Young, who is also a. co-convenor of SART, added that "like the South Africans, the ERFU has taken all steps in an attempt to crush dissent." 'i 1 The American rugby people do not downplay their role in helping South Africa out of its international sports isolation that has resulted from protests over its apartheid policies. In the promotional flyer for the tour, the rugby union says "1978 saw South Africa return to the international arena with a visit by the United States."

ht c~fthis new informationi the SMcaqiitianc has once a air! calleIn liZ on the Reagan Administration to deny vlsas to the South %ifrlcans. It has also called on officials in Chicago, Albany and New York to cancel the matches with the Springboks planned for September 19. ?? and 76,respectively. In releasing the documents on Luyt and the ERFU, Lapchick said, la his evidence shows that the Springboks are not only symbolic representatives of the apartheid system, they are official agents of that repuynant system. We cannot allow them into this ceuntry. We must stop the tour." For more information, call: (?13) 663-3140 (Lapchick); (313) 875-9491 (Adeyemi) ; (?I?) 737-4397 (Young).