Hamilton: a wake up call for all
The evening before the game in Hamilton anti-tour groups assembled and listened to speeches and sang songs of freedom.
On Saturday 25th July 1981, approximately 2000 demonstrators marched towards the Rugby ground in protest. They were waving around posters and chanting “Amand-la, Amandla Ngaweto” and “Remem-ber, Remem-ber So-weto.” The African chant meant “Power, Power to the People”; while Soweto was a reference to the Johannesburg small town where in June, 1976, 78 blacks died after police fired into crowds dying riots that followed student protests against enforced teaching of Afrikaans.
350 protesters, many who were wearing crash helmets, cut a hole in the fence and ran onto the rugby field. The police tried to stop them, but it was no use as they were outnumbered. Subsequently two police were trampled to the ground when the 350 demonstrators charged through the police. Once in the middle of the field the anti-tour group (consisting of about 200 people) linked arms and formed a circle, with a large cross in the centre.
More police were quickly recruited and were on the field, making a total of 150 police officers surrounding the demonstrators. The police slowly started to make arrests, dragging one or two people out at a time, while the crowd threw things at them. They had made about 50 arrests in one hour and there was another threat that was predominantly on the minds of the police. A plane had been stolen and was approaching the stadium, and the police were worried that it would dive straight for the crowd. They then decided to call the match off, thinking it was too risky especially because they did not know the planes exact whereabouts. Because the match had been cancelled the protesters willingly left the pitch, with many enraged rugby fans booing and throwing wine bottles and beer cans at them while they made their exit.
After the cancellation of the match there was violence breaking out throughout the city. The demonstrators had set up a white van with a red cross displayed in the window meaning this was their first aid van. The rugby protesters were so blinded with rage that even though there was a young man in the front with blood gushing out of his nose and a young woman lying unconscious on a nearby grass verge, they kicked the van and began to roughly rock it back and forth. Another car with a passenger who had blood running down her face was attacked by a group of young rugby advocates. In the main part of town their was a young man who lay at the kerbside unconscious. Police had a tough job on their hands.
This behaviour shocked many from other countries with Mr Nicholas Winterton, a Conservative MP in London telling the House of Commons this:
“We have seen some disgraceful scenes in New Zealand where a handful of protesters were allowed to rip down fences around a rugby ground to prevent 20,000 rugby supporters and enthusiasts from watching a game of rugby football. It is appalling that the police did not take action. There are occasions when I an tempted to say that we should let police turn a blind eye and allow the supporters of rugby to get these people - these trendy, long-haired layabouts and louts, these trendy extraordinary Marxist-Christian clerics who seem to encourage the breakdown of society as we know it for reasons known only to themselves. The scrapping of the Gleneagles agreement will speed up the total integration of sport in South Africa, and the more that the South Africans can travel throughout the world, playing their games, the sooner they will bring changes to their country. Those are the changes that many of us want to see.”
Politics was getting in the way of sport, but was it for a good reason? this was the question that was dividing the nation.
On Saturday 25th July 1981, approximately 2000 demonstrators marched towards the Rugby ground in protest. They were waving around posters and chanting “Amand-la, Amandla Ngaweto” and “Remem-ber, Remem-ber So-weto.” The African chant meant “Power, Power to the People”; while Soweto was a reference to the Johannesburg small town where in June, 1976, 78 blacks died after police fired into crowds dying riots that followed student protests against enforced teaching of Afrikaans.
350 protesters, many who were wearing crash helmets, cut a hole in the fence and ran onto the rugby field. The police tried to stop them, but it was no use as they were outnumbered. Subsequently two police were trampled to the ground when the 350 demonstrators charged through the police. Once in the middle of the field the anti-tour group (consisting of about 200 people) linked arms and formed a circle, with a large cross in the centre.
More police were quickly recruited and were on the field, making a total of 150 police officers surrounding the demonstrators. The police slowly started to make arrests, dragging one or two people out at a time, while the crowd threw things at them. They had made about 50 arrests in one hour and there was another threat that was predominantly on the minds of the police. A plane had been stolen and was approaching the stadium, and the police were worried that it would dive straight for the crowd. They then decided to call the match off, thinking it was too risky especially because they did not know the planes exact whereabouts. Because the match had been cancelled the protesters willingly left the pitch, with many enraged rugby fans booing and throwing wine bottles and beer cans at them while they made their exit.
After the cancellation of the match there was violence breaking out throughout the city. The demonstrators had set up a white van with a red cross displayed in the window meaning this was their first aid van. The rugby protesters were so blinded with rage that even though there was a young man in the front with blood gushing out of his nose and a young woman lying unconscious on a nearby grass verge, they kicked the van and began to roughly rock it back and forth. Another car with a passenger who had blood running down her face was attacked by a group of young rugby advocates. In the main part of town their was a young man who lay at the kerbside unconscious. Police had a tough job on their hands.
This behaviour shocked many from other countries with Mr Nicholas Winterton, a Conservative MP in London telling the House of Commons this:
“We have seen some disgraceful scenes in New Zealand where a handful of protesters were allowed to rip down fences around a rugby ground to prevent 20,000 rugby supporters and enthusiasts from watching a game of rugby football. It is appalling that the police did not take action. There are occasions when I an tempted to say that we should let police turn a blind eye and allow the supporters of rugby to get these people - these trendy, long-haired layabouts and louts, these trendy extraordinary Marxist-Christian clerics who seem to encourage the breakdown of society as we know it for reasons known only to themselves. The scrapping of the Gleneagles agreement will speed up the total integration of sport in South Africa, and the more that the South Africans can travel throughout the world, playing their games, the sooner they will bring changes to their country. Those are the changes that many of us want to see.”
Politics was getting in the way of sport, but was it for a good reason? this was the question that was dividing the nation.