| NZ anti-apartheid-vegter weier eer van SA regering [boodskap #116085] |
Ma, 28 Januarie 2008 13:10 |
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New Zealand anti-apartheid leader rejects SA award nomination
Associated Press
Monday January 28
WELLINGTON - 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 Monday.
John Minto, nominated for a Companion of O. R. 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African government official, asked for the nomination to be withdrawn,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 honor 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 organizer, Minto was 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," he noted.
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