Anti-apartheid campaigner rejects SA awardWellington, New Zealand -
28 January 2008
A veteran New Zealand anti-apartheid campaigner has rejected a
nomination for a prestigious South African award for foreigners, saying
he is dismayed over conditions in the country, local media reported on
Monday.
John Minto, nominated for a Companion of OR Tambo Award
by a South African government official, asked for the nomination to be
withdrawn, the
Christchurch Press newspaper said.
"[South Africa] was the democratic country with so much hope and I
think for so many people it's been the deepest of disappointments,
and certainly it has been for me," Minto said.
"I'm just deeply dismayed at what's happened," he told the newspaper.
The Tambo award is the highest honour granted non-South Africans in
recognition of friendship, cooperation and support.
Previous recipients include Mahatma Gandhi, Kofi Annan,
Salvador Allende and Martin Luther King Jr.
A union organiser, Minto was the national coordinator of the Halt All
Racist Tours movement during the controversial 1981 Springbok rugby
tour of New Zealand -- when an all-white rugby team representing
South Africa was strongly opposed by many New Zealanders.
In an open letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki, Minto blasted
the African National Congress government which, he said, had left black
South Africans "worse off than they were under [white] minority rule".
"When we protested and marched into police batons and barbed wire
here in the struggle against apartheid, we were not fighting for a small
black elite to become millionaires," Minto wrote.
"We were fighting for a better South Africa for all its citizens. The faces
at the top have changed from white to black but the substance of
change is an illusion." – Sapa-AP
M&G