Still Steadfast

Anti-apartheid activist New Zealander John Minto has turned down a nomination for an award proffered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Minto organised protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981 when  thousands responded to Minto’s campaign by taking to the streets. In a letter to President Mbeki on his website, Minto declined nomination for the Companion of O R Tambo Award named after South African anti-apartheid leader Oliver Tambo. “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 in his letter to Mbeki, “We were fighting for a better South Africa for all its citizens.”