UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS CENTRE AGAINST APARTHEID NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* 20/85 December 1985 REGISTER OF SPORTS CONTACTS WITH SOUTH AFRICA 1 January - 30 June 1985 IN-ote: Pursuant to a decision in 1980, the Special Committee against Apartheid has been publishing since May 1981 semi-annual registers of sports contacts with South Africa. The present register, as the previous ones, contains: A list of sports exchanges with South Africa arranged by the code of sports; and A list of sportsmen and sportswomen who participated in sports events in South Africa, arranged by country. Names of persons who undertake not to engage in further sports events in South Africa will be deleted from the register.[ 86-04 78 *All material in these Notes and Documents may be freely reprinted. Acknowledgement, together with a copy of the publication containing the reprint, would be appreciated. United Nations, New York 10017 CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1 A. All Blacks .............................................. 1 B. International Conference on Sports Boycott against South Africa ..................................... 2 I. SOUTH AFRICAN PROPAGANDA ........................................ 3 A. Misleading statistics .................................... 3 B. Support for apartheid sport .............................3 II. SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA ...................................... 5 Collaborators face humiliation ............................ 7 III. INTERNATIONAL ACTION AGAINST APARTHEID IN SPORTS ............. 7 IV. CONCLUSION ................................................... 9 V. DELETIONS FROM THE REGISTER ..................................... 9 Annexes I. List of sports exchanges with South Africa from 1 January to 30 June 1985 .............................................. 12 II. Register of sportsmen and sportswomen who participated in sports events in South Africa from 1 January to 30 June 1985 .......................................... 32 -1- INTRODUCTION Apartheid sports and its supporters continued with a well-financed and organized campaign to deceive the international public opinion that apartheid sports no longer exists in South Africa. However, under continued international pressure, apartheid sports was further isolated. On the one hand, sports contacts with South Africa by some individual Sportspersons and teams continued. On the other hand, a number of sportspersons whose names appeared in the United Nations register of sports contacts with South Africa have given written pledges to the Special Committee that they would not participate in sport contacts with South Africa as long as apartheid exists. Most Governments and an ever-increasing number of local authorities have taken effective action which resulted in the cancellation of tours by South African teams and sportspersons to their countries and persuaded their national teams against going to South Africa in this connection. A. All Blacks The cancellation of New Zealand's All Blacks rugby tour to South Africa was a significant development in the isolation of apartheid sports. In April 1985, despite overwhelming opposition both inside and outside the country, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) announced that the All Blacks would tour South Africa in July 1985. Following the anouncement, the New Zealand Government announced that it would withdraw all financial aid to the rugby authorities if NZRFU went ahead with the tour. Many New Zealand schools threatened to move their activities away from rugby to association football (soccer). Several major sponsors withdrew support totalling over $ NZ 200,000, from the NZRFU. New Zealand's Anti-Apartheid Movement, HART, organized protest demonstrations throughout the country. On one day alone, an estimated 100,000 people rallied in towns throughout New Zealand. The Argentine Government announced that its national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, which was scheduled to carry the team to South Africa, had been instructed not to transport the All Blacks. The Chairman of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, Major General Joseph N. Garba, stated: "The All Blacks Rugby Team has failed to realize that its decision to tour South Africa will tarnish the purpose and image of international sports contacts and be used by the r~gime and its collaborators for propaganda purposes to boost their international image." He also wrote personal letters to the players selected for the tour, urging them to desist from playing with South Africa. In May, two New Zealand lawyers, Messrs. Patrick Finnigan and Philip Recordon, decided to contest the legality of the tour in the High Court of New Zealand. -2 - The two lawyers were granted an interim injunction by the High Court which effectively stopped the team from going to South Africa while the case was being heard. Following the interim injunction, the Chairman of the NZRFU announced that the Union was cancelling the tour to South Africa. B. International Conference on Sports Boycott against South Africa The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, in co-operation with the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) and the South African Non- Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC), organized the second International Conference on Sports Boycott against South Africa. It was held at UNESCO House, Paris, from 16 to 18 May 1985. 1/ Altogether, 92 organizations and sports personalities from 40 countries participated in the deliberations. Also, government representatives from 35 countries took part in the Conference. The Conference was chaired by Mr. Gough Whitlam, former Prime Minister of Australia and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). At the end of the Conference, the Chairman of the Special Committee, in recognition of their long-term and outstanding contribution to the international campaign against apartheid sports contacts, presented citations to Messrs. Tsegaw Ayele, Bruce Kidd, Moustafa Larfoui, Frangois Moncla, Ren6 Monstard, Abraham Ordia, Nelson Paillou, Sheikh Fahd A1-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Alexander Spercu, Roger Surmin and Ydnekatchew Tessema, who were participants in the Conference. The Conference unanimously adopted a Declaration in which it: (a) Requested the International Olympic Committee to consider adopting a code to discourage sports exchanges with South Africa; (b) Requested the National Olympic Committees to secure the expulsion of South Africa from the remaining federations to which it belonged; (c) Requested the International Cricket Conference to develop a strategy which would end the heavy traffic of cricketers between South Africa and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; (d) Called for the cancellation of the New Zealand rugby tour to South Africa and condemned the support given by the International Rugby Board to apartheid rugby; (e) Warned of the grave consequences should the proposed 1986 Lions rugby tour (from the United Kingdom and Ireland) to South Africa proceed; (f) Condemned the issuance, use and recognition of passports of convenience obtained by South African sportsmen and sportswomen to circumvent the international boycott of apartheid sport. - 3 - I. SOUTH AFRICAN PROPAGANDA The racist r6gime of South Africa continued to use embassies and its recently established Sports Office in London as vehicles to mislead international opinion about apartheid in sports. The South African Sports Office in London has written to all national sports associations and many politicians in the United Kingdom, pleading for sports links with apartheid sports. The letters stated that the South African Sports Office "represents all 108 sports associations in South Africa", omitting to mention that the 108 associations are all government-recognized bodies. In March 1985, South Africa's white sports organizations issued another "Declaration of intent", similar to that of October 1984 in which white sports administrators stated that they were committed to equality in South African sports. Plainly, their effort was only designed to have South Africa re-admitted into international sports, not really to dissolve apartheid in sports. A. Misleading statistics In April 1985, the South African Government presented a report to Parliament on international sports contacts. It stated that 2,967 sportsmen from 53 countries had visited South Africa in 1984. The report, inter alia, said: "It is evident that in spite of continuous efforts to keep South Africa from international participation, many South African sportsmen still participate at the international level." 2/ The report also stated that 961 South African sportsmen and sportswomen visited 29 overseas countries in 1984. However, one South African newspaper, The Star (Johannesburg), analyzing the report, said: "Sounds rosy, doesn't it. But statistics can be misleading: and recent events suggest that South Africa is, in fact, fast becoming an island in the sea of international sport." 2/ B. Support for apartheid sport An organization called Freedom in Sport (FIS) was established in London, United Kingdom several years ago specifically to lobby for the re-entry of South Africa into international sport. Many of its members have close ties with the government-recognized South African sports bodies. Mr. Tony Campbell, a senior official of FIS who lives in Dublin, Ireland, acts as the public relations officer of the white South African Rugby Board (SARB). The president of FIS, Lord