I had the honour to know Rhodri over many decades. That wasn’t very exceptional. I think everyone involved in the Labour Party in Wales knew Rhodri at some time or other. In fact, everyone in Wales seemed to know Rhodri at some time or other. I do remember his personal kindness to me and to my late wife Elaine.

But I would like to make a specific tribute on behalf of those thousands of people in Wales who, like Rhodri, gave several decades of their lives to the campaign against apartheid in South Africa, and the international sporting and cultural boycott that eventually contributed to the downfall of the apartheid regime. In Wales, through the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement, it was one of the most effective campaigns across the world. It engaged, over several decades, generations of activists and knew no party political boundaries, and Rhodri was a founder member of the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement. He was at the forefront of that movement, and alongside many other major Welsh political figures, such as Neil Kinnock, Lord Jack Brooks, Phil Squire, who was then the leader of Mid Glamorgan council, Jenny Randerson, South Glamorgan council leader Bob Morgan, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Dafydd Iwan through song, and many others—Dai Francis—Rhodri, alongside Julie, was always there in that campaign. In the 1980s, he was part of a delegation to the National Eisteddfod, which successfully established a cultural boycott, something that would in previous years have been unheard of. He supported the rugby boycott, something that was not easy for an ardent rugby fan. He actively campaigned and supported the calls for the release of Nelson Mandela, and upon his release from prison—Mandela’s, that is—he proudly spoke of the special link between Wales and South Africa. This was recognised by Nelson Mandela and by the African National Congress.

Rhodri was a participant in the famous Welsh fundraising sponsored walk held each year to raise funds for charities commemorating the Soweto massacre, a walk that, in fact, carries on to this day, and I walk I know he enjoyed—5 miles from Llantwit Major to the Plough and Harrow pub in Monknash, and then, much more slowly, back again. Alongside so many, Rhodri was a spokesman for all that was so good in Wales when it came to standing up against injustice wherever it occurred, and in the best internationalist traditions of Wales. So, on behalf of all those who were involved in that movement—and I know they would like me to say this—thank you, Rhodri. You were a great campaigner for justice and international solidarity and you played your part in Wales in bringing the evil of apartheid to an end.