Stop the Springboks

In the winter of 1969 to 70, anti-apartheid campaigners disrupted 24 matches during a tour of the British Isles by South Africa’s Springboks rugby team. For the first time, the activists used direct-action tactics – running onto the pitch, throwing smoke bombs and even super-gluing the locks of the South Africans’ hotel rooms. The successful campaign forced the cancellation first of a planned tour by the South African cricket team later in 1970, and then of all future visits by South African teams until the end of apartheid. Simon Watts talks to Peter Hain, who organised the protests and later became a British cabinet minister.

PHOTO: An anti-apartheid demonstration outside a Springboks rugby match in central England in November 1969 (Getty Images)