Pitched Battle by Larry Writer

Author:Larry Writer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL035000, POL035010, POL011000, SOC031000, SPO019000, SPO056000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2016-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

NO CHARITY IN THE CITY OF CHURCHES

When the Springboks arrived in Adelaide on Monday 28 June after their excruciating seven-hour flight from Perth, anti-apartheid demonstrators had to wait to let the tourists know their low opinion of them. To avoid the ugly confrontations that had taken place at Perth Airport, Commonwealth Police devised a ruse to ensure there was no early contact between the footballers and the 600 AAM and CARIS protesters, led by Bishop Crowther and Peter Hain.

The protesters had milled about at Adelaide Airport for four hours before the planes’ expected arrival at around 5.00 p.m. (Unlike in Perth, there were few rugby fans to welcome the Springboks; perhaps they’d got wind of the subterfuge.) At 4.30, a squad of police vans pulled up outside the terminal, leading the demonstrators to believe that the Springboks were about to land. Police got out and formed ranks. An Inspector Butcher called for calm on a megaphone.

However, instead of taxiing to a halt at airport arrivals, the Springboks’ four planes landed 800 metres from the airport buildings, at the edge of the main runway, and disgorged the South Africans into private cars, which sped them to the unprepossessing Mayfair Hotel on Tapleys Hill Road, a kilometre from the airport. Before the protesters realised they’d been tricked, the Springboks were unpacking their luggage and showering. The airport strategy and the name of the team hotel had been kept secret, despite campaigners monitoring Department of Civil Aviation broadcasts to the aircraft. That afternoon, the Springboks trained at Gleneagles Reserve.

Yet the protesters claimed victory. Local AAM convenor Kevin Moriarty, 20, whose day job was as a scientist, explained that the objective had been to deny the tourists use of airport facilities — and by their skulking out the back door, that had been achieved.

On finally learning that the players were at the Mayfair, around 400 demonstrators went to the hotel in time to greet the tourists on their return from training. With whistles and drums and shouting, they kept the footballers awake until dawn. One protester threw a large rock through the reception-office window. Staff were showered with glass. Captain Hannes Marais went into the street in his pyjamas to plead for quiet. The protesters shouted all the louder.

‘The Adelaide hotel was a small, single-storey place run by a bloke and his wife. It was the only hotel that would take the players,’ says Norm Tasker. ‘I was in a room with a big glass window, and all these people outside were yelling abuse and throwing things at the hotel. I put my mattress up against the window and slept on the floor because I was frightened the window would be broken by a rock, and glass would fly everywhere. At one stage in the middle of the night, I went out into the street and said to the cops, “I’m a citizen of this country and I pay my taxes. These people are keeping me awake and putting my safety at risk by throwing things at my window.

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