In 1981, Apartheid was alive and well in South Africa. Blacks and Whites were separated in a “Separate but Equal” regime in which Whites where a lot more important that Blacks. Some New Zealanders were against playing South Africa, in an attempt to boycott them to stop apartheid. Others were not. Now, Apartheid has gone and attitudes have changed, but many people do not regret what they did.
When the South African rugby team came to New Zealand in 1981, many people were against the tour, using protests, breaking into games and things such as putting broken glass on a field to demonstrate that they did not want any games against South Africa to go ahead. Now, people flock to the ticket stands to buy tickets for the games against South Africa and they usually sell out because both teams are competitive and provide a good match for spectators to watch.
With the Bridge Building regime going on between South Africa and New Zealand, New Zealand was trying to help South Africa change by showing them that races could mix. By doing charity work, they help raise money for things such as food, education and housing for underprivileged people, mostly Blacks, so that they can live better. Some Charity work is done by sports teams, such as the All Blacks, as they get a lot of Media Coverage.
In 1981, Robert Muldoon, the Prime Minister of New Zealand at that time, met with leaders of other countries, and made an agreement to boycott South Africa. This included sports and other things. When he publicly announced that New Zealand would not be playing against South Africa, there was an uproar with many fans of the All Blacks protesting against the announcement. Finally, someone stood up to the other countries and said that New Zealand had a right to play with whoever they choose, and the games went ahead against South Africa. Now, the government rarely gets into sports matters with the policy: “There should be no politics in sport”.
With Apartheid, South Africa was seen as a racist country. When the All Blacks went over to play Springboks, the South Africans put a few token Blacks in their team, as if to say: “We're not racist, we have Blacks in our team”. Now, many people in the Springboks are Black.
Now that Apartheid has gone, South Africa is not seen as a racist country, has many charities helping the poorer parts of the country, including sports teams, such as the All Blacks, and has no violence towards them when they come to New Zealand and other countries to play sports.
