Legacy of 1981 Springbok tour still felt today

Friday, 30 July 2021

Steve Maharey followed the Springbok tour around, joining anti-apartheid demonstrations.

As anti-1981 Springbok rugby tour protesters stormed the pitch in Hamilton, a young Massey University sociology lecturer was listening to it unfold over the radio as he washed his car.

Steve Maharey was outside a house he owned just off Savage Cres in Palmerston North, taking in the reports as the Waikato versus South Africa match was cancelled. It was a victory for the anti-apartheid movement.

“I thought to myself it’s going to be a big protest movement and it’s going to evolve, and I would like to be involved with that.”

From that point on, Maharey spent much of his time during the tour in Wellington, Auckland and other provincial cities following around the South African team, demonstrating against its presence.

Anti-tour protesters try to force their way through barriers behind the main stand at Rugby Park before the Springboks versus Waikato match.

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It’s 40 years since the tour drove a wedge through New Zealand society. Maharey, who served as Palmerston North MP from 1990-2008 and as a cabinet minister in the Helen Clark-led Labour Government, said its legacy could still be felt.

The then 28-year-old was a huge rugby fan and his brother Ken was in the Manawatū team that played the Springboks at the Showgrounds 40 years ago on Sunday.

The two didn’t discuss the tour.

“Really, it occupied three months of my life. Every time there was something on I was there,” Maharey said.

That included the infamous Molesworth St riot in Wellington and the huge anti-tour protest for the final test at Eden Park, Auckland.

Maharey was twice hit by baton-wielding police, in Auckland and Wellington.

Professionally, Maharey spent plenty of time thinking through the meaning of the tour and discussing it with students.

It changed New Zealand, he said, and led to the 1984 election of the Labour Government in a rejection of the authoritarianism of Rob Muldoon’s National administration.

It also heralded an era of greater racial awareness as New Zealanders learned about the country’s history, especially with Māori issues, although society’s divisions weren’t healed in a flash.

“For me it was both a movement that I was attracted to for protest reasons, but also it was something that really engaged me in terms of the work I was doing,” he said.

“The tour should never have gone ahead. I think it was a big moment for New Zealand, but it was a big moment for South Africa.

“They realised it was coming to the end of the road and they couldn't continue to operate like that.”

Police also changed the way they operated. Maharey ended up doing some teaching at the police college north of Wellington after the force felt it lost the support of the public.

Maharey said rugby took a hit in his mind and with many people, although now he never missed an All Blacks test. The sport was different and so was New Zealand.