Remembering the day the 1981 Springbok tour came to Taranaki
Friday, 30 July 2021
The 1981 Springbok Tour protest leader John Minto did not expect the anti-tour movement to get as big as it did.
Two games during the tour were called off, or cancelled while the country became a battleground between the pro-tour supporters and anti- tour protesters at every match venue.
Minto, the national spokesman for Halt All Racist Tours (HART) at the time, said while the protest did not stop the tour, the impact of the demonstrations opposing it being shown on television were felt strongly back in South Africa.
“We campaigned for two years in the lead up to stop the tour,” he said on a visit to New Plymouth.
“We didn't stop it, but if we had of, the impact would have been very different in both New Zealand and South Africa.
“There would have been no telecasts of the demonstrations at the game which South African saw.
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“So, though the tour carried on, there was a positive impact from doing so.”
Minto visited New Plymouth on Thursday July 29 as a part of a 40th anniversary nationwide tour of the 1981anti-tour protests, and also to highlight Israel’s apartheid regime towards Palestine.
“Our government still has very strong links with Israel, and paid nominal support to Palestine,” he said.
He called for more pressure to be put on Israel by the Labour Government through sanctions, and closing the Israeli embassy – similar to sanctions against South Africa in 1980s.
“This is the anti-apartheid protest movement of this generation.”
Minto did not attend the Taranaki game against South Africa.
Instead, he led a march in Auckland against the tour as part of the “simultaneous demonstrations” tactic to have protests at a number of centres, not just where the game was played.
At the ground were Spotswood College teacher Charles Gill, together with fellow anti-tour protesters, his wife Elaine Gill, Lesley Olley, and Colin Bell.
Gill and Olley were rugby followers – but not that day.
The anti-tour march of around 200-300 was outnumbered by police, Gill said.
“Because it was a midweek game a lot of people couldn’t attend,” he said.
It was also the day of the infamous Molesworth St anti-tour protest in Wellington.
“We had a deal with police that we would stay at the main entrance, but when we got there they broke the deal and shifted us back to Tukapa St.”
Undeterred the marchers came in behind the police and outflanked them close to the main gates.
“We would have liked to have got inside the ground but we knew we were outnumbered so we didn't make any big attempt.”
Gill said the police seeing the marchers at the gate began to panic.
“They had batons and for the first time used the ‘move, move, move’ tactic to push us back,” he said.
“We were a keen bunch but we weren't there to fight the police.
“It was pretty violent, the police got stuck in, it got a bit nasty, and my wife was covered in bruises around her middle.”
The marchers were struck by objects, including nails, thrown at them by rugby supporters.
For his efforts Gill almost lost his teaching job, got abused in the pub, and received late night calls to get out of the house “in two minutes or else”.
Minto said he was proud to be a spokesperson at one of the biggest protest movements in New Zealand’s history.
“Rugby supporters didn’t think too deeply about the implications of the tour, they just thought sport and politics shouldn’t mix.
“It was seductive phrase because the New Zealand Rugby Union brought politics into sport by accepting the invitation of a racially selected Springbok team to tour New Zealand.”
Minto said if the tour had gone another week someone would have died.
“There was some incredibly nasty stuff happening.”
The next big divisive event in New Zealand could occur over climate change, between those who deny it is happening, and those who know change must happen, he said.