The anti-tour protesters will be represented in South Africa – by Pita and (unofficially) by Hone too

At first blush, it looked like a delegation without tour protesters.

The impression was magnified by anti-apartheid activist John Minto when he bleated about wanting to go to Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa – but only if he went with the official delegation.

We all remember Minto, of course, as a protest leader against the South African rugby tour in the 1981 and – since then – as a protester against anything that calls for someone to bellow into a bullhorn.

He is reported to have said John Key’s delegation should include him or an anti-apartheid activist MP like Mana’s Hone Harawira or Green Party’s Kevin Hague.

It has happened only once, so far, but no matter – the very special Maori King has made it a tradition

Alf has enormous regard for the indigenous people of this country, who – by virtue of the New Zealand Government signing some Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People – have officially been deemed “special”.

Alf’s mate and former Parliamentary colleague, Simon Power, said as much in a ministerial statement on 20 April 2010.

It was a ministerial statement he made as Minister of Justice on the matter of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and it explained why our wonderful government supported it.

It’s a pity the Aussie phone pranksters can’t be deployed to find out what’s up with Nelson Mandela

Alf is bound to say he is disappointed at the dearth of firm details regarding the health of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Yes, we know Mandela is undergoing further tests in hospital in Pretoria, where he was admitted on Saturday.

And we know (from a Radio NZ report here) that this is the second time the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader has been hospitalised in the past year.

But what’s going on, exactly?

We don’t really know.