Perspectives on South Africa, years after the protest - What caused the protest and what can we expect in the future for our relationship with South Africa?
Evening Post, 27 Sep 1993; pg. 9, Newspaper Article. Morris, David.
Former HART leader Trevor Richards + National MP Ross Meurant
The two opposing people, Trevor Richards and Ross Meurant, years after the tour protests have come to agree on a few things. Firstly, they agree that the height of our interest in South Africa was in 1981, rooted in numbers of New Zealanders expressing a genuine concern towards the apartheid regime.
The two agree that protests could have had an additional spur and that people may have been in a mood for change in their society.
Ross Meurant sees little reason for New Zealand to be a future close friend of South Africa. He says he cannot identify any great kinship in anything other than rugby and that they were never one of our partners. "They were just a formidable adversary in rugby". His view on apartheid is that "There was a big percentage of the country who were opposed... on moral grounds; genuinely so. They were the overall majority who protested"
He thinks that perhaps it was also the "last hurrah for...the anti-Vietnam war movement".
Meurant feels that the long-term consequences of the protest have been widespread. He said that anti-tour protests marked the end of the days of big public protests, partly because the "1960's activists got too old". He also says that the attitudes towards police, the courts and the authorities have shifted, particularly among middle class protests who generally saw an oppressive side usually reserved for the poor, Maori or Pacific Islanders.
Trevor Richards however, says that the 1981 Springbok Tour Protests were mainly about racism and a now bygone fanaticism for rugby, with an element of 'anti-Muldoonism'. He believes the protests would not have happened if there hadn't been such strong feelings about the Springboks being in New Zealand. He believes that "Muldoon had got up the noses of so many people". Richards says many people were particularly repelled by Prime Minister Muldoon's hostility to African states and his machinations ((the act of plotting or cunning design for a sinister result)) over the Gleneagles Agreement designed to stop contacts with South Africa by Commonwealth countries.
Richard disagrees with Meurant over our affinity with present white-minority-ruled South Africa and our future involvement with the new black South Africa. He says, "There is a similarity between white South Africans and New Zealanders. During the period i was involved in the anti-apartheid movement one constantly came into contact with a very racist society." In terms of our future relations with South Africa, Richards says that as New Zealand played a part in abolishing apartheid in South Africa, we should help the new democratic government.
The two opposing people, Trevor Richards and Ross Meurant, years after the tour protests have come to agree on a few things. Firstly, they agree that the height of our interest in South Africa was in 1981, rooted in numbers of New Zealanders expressing a genuine concern towards the apartheid regime.
The two agree that protests could have had an additional spur and that people may have been in a mood for change in their society.
Ross Meurant sees little reason for New Zealand to be a future close friend of South Africa. He says he cannot identify any great kinship in anything other than rugby and that they were never one of our partners. "They were just a formidable adversary in rugby". His view on apartheid is that "There was a big percentage of the country who were opposed... on moral grounds; genuinely so. They were the overall majority who protested"
He thinks that perhaps it was also the "last hurrah for...the anti-Vietnam war movement".
Meurant feels that the long-term consequences of the protest have been widespread. He said that anti-tour protests marked the end of the days of big public protests, partly because the "1960's activists got too old". He also says that the attitudes towards police, the courts and the authorities have shifted, particularly among middle class protests who generally saw an oppressive side usually reserved for the poor, Maori or Pacific Islanders.
Trevor Richards however, says that the 1981 Springbok Tour Protests were mainly about racism and a now bygone fanaticism for rugby, with an element of 'anti-Muldoonism'. He believes the protests would not have happened if there hadn't been such strong feelings about the Springboks being in New Zealand. He believes that "Muldoon had got up the noses of so many people". Richards says many people were particularly repelled by Prime Minister Muldoon's hostility to African states and his machinations ((the act of plotting or cunning design for a sinister result)) over the Gleneagles Agreement designed to stop contacts with South Africa by Commonwealth countries.
Richard disagrees with Meurant over our affinity with present white-minority-ruled South Africa and our future involvement with the new black South Africa. He says, "There is a similarity between white South Africans and New Zealanders. During the period i was involved in the anti-apartheid movement one constantly came into contact with a very racist society." In terms of our future relations with South Africa, Richards says that as New Zealand played a part in abolishing apartheid in South Africa, we should help the new democratic government.