Black Caps leave today for Africa

The Black Caps cricket team leave the country today for a training tour in Namibia ahead of their controversial tour of Zimbabwe next month.

Pressure mounted yesterday on New Zealand Cricket to cancel the tour in light of a damning United Nations report slamming the actions of Robert Mugabe's regime as a "catastrophic injustice".

Calls also increased for the New Zealand Government to intervene to stop the tour in light of the report, which said Mr Mugabe's bulldozing of urban slums had left 700,000 people homeless or jobless and affected 2.4 million others.

NZ Cricket declined to comment yesterday, but spokesman Steve Addison said team management and players would speak to media this morning before their departure at Christchurch Airport.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said the report by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka confirmed the Government's opposition to the tour.

"It shows Mugabe is indulging in gross human rights abuses."

He said a motion condemning the regime and opposing the tour would be tabled in Parliament tomorrow, but the Government was still loath to legislate to ban the cricketers from going.

John Minto, who organised an anti-tour rally in Auckland this month, said he was angry that Mr Goff's stance on a ban remained unchanged.

"He's given up any pretence of trying to stop this tour."

Mr Minto said it was "unconscionable" for the Government to allow the tour to proceed when the report revealed worse abuses by Mr Mugabe than previously thought.

Mr Minto, who was a leader of the anti-tour group Hart during the 1981 Springbok tour, said the Government was in a position to make a powerful statement against the Zimbabwean regime.

He and supporters of the group Global Peace and Justice Auckland planned a final protest before the Black Caps departed and would write again to players asking them not to go.

Zimbabwean human rights activist Judith Todd, who is in New Zealand pushing for the cancellation of the tour, said the UN report highlighted the danger for the team.

"I'm very worried about their safety," she said.

Ms Todd, the daughter of former New Zealand-born Rhodesian prime minister and independence movement supporter Sir Garfield Todd, said it was up to New Zealand Cricket rather than the Government to stop the tour.

"They should be exploring options very fast."

She had a last-ditch plea for the organisation's chief executive, Martin Snedden: "Please rescue your players from this appalling situation".

Ms Todd was in Wellington last night but planning to leave today to speak at further public meetings about the tour in Christchurch and Dunedin.

The Green Party, which brought Ms Todd to New Zealand, also expressed growing concern about the team's safety.

State media in Zimbabwe have reported in recent weeks that Air Zimbabwe flights have been grounded because of shortages of fuel and spare parts. Greens co-leader Rod Donald said the shortages put the players in a dangerous position.