Wellington meeting will honour African National Congress

Kāpiti Independent columnist Russell Marshal reports that an important conference honouring the work of the anti-apartheid movement will be held at Victoria University on August 18 and 19.

He says that officially it is in response to a request from the Africa National Congress to friendly countries around the world to help mark their centenary.

The members of the committee involved in the planning have used the opportunity to take a retrospective look at the evolution and achievements of the NZ anti apartheid movement.

The organisers are bringing three people from overseas to take part — Arnold Stofile (who as South Africa’s Sports minister initiated the apology to NZ Maori); and the  Rt Rev John Osmers and Fr Michael Lapsley, both NZ-born Anglican priests, and both of them victims of parcel bombs.

Trevor Richards is returning from Paris to act as MC for the conference,to be held in the Rutherford Building at the University.

(Editor’s note: Russell Marshall first took up the anti apartheid cause seriously in the late 1960s in Wairarapa, and continued to be active and outspoken on those issues throughout his 18 year stint as an MP. He was one of a group including church leaders and trade unionists who set up the Africa Information Centre in the late 1970s,  and was a trustee for the whole of its two decades of activity. He chaired the Commownealth Observer Mission in South Africa for several months in 1994 around the ‘Mandlela’ elections)

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