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Stuart Weaving Extracts from speech made by Stuart Weaving, Officer of the Order of Good Hope, at Sandton Sun, 4 November 2004, to celebrate forty years connection with South Africa. Stuart Weaving said “In my capacity as Editor of Welsh Rugby Magazine I visited South Africa in 1964 with the Welsh Rugby team. I came to South Africa in 1968 with the British Lions and on both occasions I was quite surprised at the number of British people who had emigrated to the Republic in recent times. On arrive back in the UK I launched the Friends of the Springbok Association in September 1968 to help keep contacts between families in the UK and in South Africa. Apart from regular Newsletters, and creating other methods of keeping in touch, we started arranging reunions with special Group Fares and occasional charters. To this end, over the first thirty-six years, we have arranged an average of 12000 reunions per annum from the UK to South Africa”. In 1970 Stuart Weaving launched Friends of the Lion Association for families in South Africa to keep in contact with their relatives in the UK, and to this the Association has arranged over 4000 reunions per annum in the northerly directions. In his speech, Stuart Weaving continued “With such movement of people and such involvement with reunions it was inevitable that I would be asked on many occasions to give my thoughts on the position in South Africa. I deliberately avoided getting involved in political arguments, even though on many occasions people tried to draw me into such discussions. Stuart Weaving went on to say “I did on many occasions, express my view that for both moral and economic reasons, South Africa needed to advance people of all races and creeds to the maximum of their potential. Forty years on I still feel the same. Whilst I can appreciate the need for a certain amount of affirmative action for certain racial groups, I consider that after ten years it is detrimental to South Africa to continue this discrimination. Prior to 1994 many highly qualified and capable South Africans (mainly non-whites) left the country because of discrimination. Now, many white South Africans who have enjoyed a high standard of education feel themselves obliged to leave South Africa in order to advance their ambitions. This is a great loss to South Africa. Stuart Weaving admitted “For 26 years, from 1968 – 1994, I accept the fact that I must have been a thorn in the side of the isolationists and boycotters. We each had our own agenda. I can understand they felt that their way was the best ways to achieve universal franchise. However, the isolation boycott and disinvestments campaigns created further unemployment and I felt that objective could be achieved without bringing the country to its knees. I always preached contact, understanding and support of millions of South Africans of all races who were looking for change for the better which would produce better long-term results. Stuart Weaving was adamant in saying “Contrary to certain views that have been expressed, I am in no way racist, nor have I ever supported the apartheid system”. “Apart from the over 400,000 reunions trips to South Africa, we have also arranged many sports, choir and cultural visits and, on very single occasion, I have made sure that the organisations I have dealt with, the people I have participated with and the audiences have been absolutely multi-racial. In fact, for the Welsh Choir visits I taught the choir songs in Zulu, Xhosa and Twsana. Stuart Weaving was approached in 1980 to be the Vice-President of the Roodepoort Eisteddfod, but first checked to ensure that it was multi-racial in participation and audience, and then willingly accepted this invitation. During the 1970s Stuart Weaving founded an organisation, “The Goodwill Foundation” and toured South Africa speaking at dozens of functions from Cape Town to Soweto, expressing the importance of all races reaching out in Friendship towards the creation of a New South Africa. In 1993, Stuart Weaving was indeed honoured to be awarded South Africa’s Order of Good Hope for services to the Peoples of South Africa, and in 1994 Stuart Weaving had the honour and privilege of being the Presiding Officer and Returning Officer for the democratic elections for the New South Africa. Stuart Weaving concluded by saying “The 400000 people we have brought to South Africa, over 90% on South African Airways, have injected over 8 billion Rand (in today’s rates) into the South African economy. The 12000 people we bring a year inject over 250 million Rand into the economy, thus feeding approximately ten thousand families. “As I see it, the main problem in South Africa at this time is unemployment, and we at the Friendship Foundation and the UK Friends of the Springbok pledge our commitment to continue supporting the New South Africa by introducing as many people as possible to this wonderful country” Stuart Weaving continues putting his energy behind the main objectives of the Friends of the Springbok and Lion Associations.
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