Nelson Mandela – S.A. political activist

Nelson Mandela believed that the South African policy of Apartheid should be abolished as he believes that South Africa should be a free nation where there is equality and balance. Because of these beliefs he was sent to life imprisonment in 1962. He served 27 years in prison, first on Robben Island, then on Pollsmoor Prison and lastly on Victor Verster Prison.
Shortly after the public lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990, Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison on the 11th of February. In that same year, Nelson Mandela led a multi-racial ANC party to a negotiation with a government of 11 Afrikaner men. Nelson was originally released because the South African government had begun to get rid of the South African Policy of Apartheid because of the events that had happened during the 1981 Springbok Tour in New Zealand.
Mandela’s thoughts on the 1981 Springbok Tour in New Zealand were that the Tour was “an extraordinary human disaster that lasted far too long.” As it was mixing the traditional sport between New Zealand and South Africa with the racist South African Policy of Apartheid, which was resulting in the sport being tainted overall. Nelson believed that the history between the two nations was too extensive to be ruined by the politics of South Africa.
Although during the 1981 Springbok Tour in New Zealand, Nelson Mandela was not able to do any actions against the tour as he was still serving his life imprisonment in the Victor Verster Prison. Although after his imprisonment he attempted to fix the relationship between the citizens of New Zealand and the South African nation.
The reason why Nelson Mandela wanted to repair the relationship between the citizens of New Zealand and the South African Nation was because that they had a long sporting relationship that had been destroyed by the South African policy of Apartheid during the 1981 Springbok Tour, because of the racial policy the relationship between the two nations had been destroyed after around 52 years of rugby history.

Robert Muldoon:
Robert Muldoon was the Prime Minister of New Zealand at the time of the 1981 Springbok tour, he was made the prime minister from 1975 to 1983 after the consequences of the 1981 Springbok tour resulted in him losing his position in government.
Robert Muldoon took advantage of the downfall of Norman Kirk, the president beforehand, to get more votes for his own campaign in 1975. Because Norman Kirk didn’t stick to his promise of letting the 1973 tour go through his chances of gaining
Although Muldoon left his decision whether or not to allow the Springbok Tour of 1981 to go on after the scenario in Soweto showed the struggle occurring throughout the South African nation which was all caused by the South African policy of apartheid, which was forcing the ‘black’ youth of South Africa to learn forced Afrikaans which had started the protest in Soweto as the students argued against having to learn the language.
Muldoon’s decision to let the NZRFU (New Zealand Rugby Football Union) decide on whether the 1981 Springbok tour went through looked as though he was not prepared to take responsibility for the consequences of his decision, this went through the minds of many New Zealand citizens at the time of the announcement and this was when they began to doubt Muldoon’s leadership skills.
Muldoon believed that sports and politics should not be mixed, and it was because of these beliefs that the Springboks were allowed their entry into New Zealand for the tour to commence. Muldoon had spent over 2 Million dollars into the security for the tour, although it was simply overrun by the anti-tour protestors.
Robert’s beliefs that sports and politics should be separated meant that he paid more of his attention towards ensuring the Springbok Tour goes on smoothly and undisturbed. Although because of this the anti-tour protestors had even more reason to doubt the leadership of the current government at the time. As Robert had invested a lot of government spending money into the security of the 1981 Tour, it meant that the other faculties of the society were having their budgets cut and affecting the public services dramatically. This meant that those who had no interest in the tour were being negatively affected as the public services were not receiving as much of a budget as they had in previous years.