Disinvestment from South Africa

Economic boycott against apartheid South Africa

The campaign to divest from South Africa gained prominence on university campuses in the United States in the mid-1980s; the debate headlined the October 1985 issue of Vassar College's student newspaper. The man pictured with his index finger raised is then-South African president P.W. Botha.[1]

Disinvestment from South Africa was first advocated in the 1960s in protest against South Africa's system of apartheid, but was not implemented on a significant scale until the mid-1980s. A disinvestment policy the U.S. adopted in 1986 in response to the disinvestment campaign is credited with playing a role in pressuring the South African government to embark on negotiations that ultimately led to the dismantling of the apartheid system.[2]

## United Nations resolutions and embargos

[edit]

International opposition to
apartheid in South Africa

Anti-apartheid protest in Amsterdam, 1988

Campaigns

* Academic boycott
* Sporting boycott
* Disinvestment
* Constructive engagement
* Free South Africa Movement
* International anti-apartheid music
* International sanctions
* Milton King boycotts

Instruments and legislation

* 1962 UN Resolution 1761
* 1973 Crime of Apartheid Convention
* 1977 Gleneagles Agreement
* 1977 Sullivan principles
* 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act

Organisations

* Anti-Apartheid Movement
* Artists United Against Apartheid
* Commonwealth of Nations
* Halt All Racist Tours
* Organisation of African Unity
* TransAfrica
* UN Special Committee against Apartheid

Conferences

* 1964 Conference for Economic Sanctions
* 1978 World Conference against Racism

UN Security Council Resolutions

* Resolution 134 (Sharpeville massacre)
* Resolution 181 (voluntary arms embargo)
* Resolution 191 (sanctions feasibility)
* Resolution 282 (arms embargo strengthening)
* Resolution 418 (mandatory arms embargo)
* Resolution 435 (South-West Africa ceasefire)
* Resolution 591 (arms embargo strengthening)

Other aspects

* Elimination of Racism Day
* "Biko" (song)
* Activists
* Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
* Equity television programming ban
* Rugby union and apartheid

* v
* t
* e

In November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, a non-binding resolution establishing the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, and called for imposing economic and other sanctions on South Africa. Western nations and major trading partners of South Africa opposed the call for sanctions and boycotted the committee.[3][4]

Following the passage of this resolution, the UK-based Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) spearheaded the arrangements for an international conference on sanctions to be held in London in April 1964. According to Arianna Lisson,

> The aim of the Conference was to work out the practicability of economic sanctions and their implications on the economies of South Africa, the UK, the U.S., and the Protectorates. Knowing that the strongest opposition to the application of sanctions came from the West (and within the West, Britain), the Committee made every effort to attract as wide and varied a number of speakers and participants as possible so that the Conference findings would be regarded as objective.[4]

According to Lisson, the International Conference for Economic Sanctions Against South Africa

> established the necessity, the legality, and the practicability of internationally organised sanctions against South Africa, whose policies were seen to have become a direct threat to peace and security in Africa and the world. Its findings also pointed out that in order to be effective, a programme of sanctions would need the active participation of Britain and the U.S., who were also the main obstacle to the implementation of such a policy.[4]

### The British response

[edit]

The conference was not successful in persuading Britain to take up economic sanctions against South Africa. Rather, the British government

> remained firm in its view that the imposition of sanctions would be unconstitutional "because we do not accept that this situation in South Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security and we do not, in any case, believe that sanctions would have the effect of persuading the South African Government to change its policies".[4]

The AAM tried to make sanctions an issue in the 1964 general election in Britain. Candidates were asked to state their position on economic sanctions and other punitive measures against the South African government. Most candidates who responded said they supported sanctions. However, after the Labour Party swept to power, commitment to the anti-apartheid cause dissipated. In short order, Labour Party leader Harold Wilson told the press that his party was "not in favour of trade sanctions partly because, even if fully effective, they would harm the people we are most concerned about – the Africans and those white South Africans who are having to maintain some standard of decency there".[4] Even so, Lisson writes that the "AAM still hoped that the new Labour Government would be more sensitive to the demands of public opinion than the previous Government." But by the end of 1964 it was clear that the election of the Labour Party had made little difference in the government's overall unwillingness to impose sanctions. Lisson summarized the situation at the UN in 1964:

> At the UN, Britain consistently refused to accept that the situation in South Africa fell under Chapter VII of the [United Nations] Charter. Instead, in collaboration with the U.S., it worked for a carefully worded appeal on the Rivonia and other political trials to try to appease Afro-Asian countries and public opinion at home and abroad; by early 1965 the issue of sanctions had lost momentum.[4]

According to Lisson, Great Britain rejected sanctions because of its economic interests in South Africa, which would have been put at risk if any type of meaningful economic sanctions had been put in place.

### United Nations embargos

[edit]

In 1977, the voluntary UN arms embargo became mandatory with the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 418. On 20 November 1987 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a voluntary international oil embargo.[5]

## United States campaign (1977–1989)

[edit]

### The Sullivan Principles (1977)

[edit]

Main article: Sullivan Principles

When anti-apartheid activists in the U.S. found that Washington was unwilling to get involved in economically isolating South Africa,[6] they responded by lobbying individual business and institutional investors to end their involvement with or investments in the apartheid state as a matter of corporate social responsibility. This campaign was coordinated by several faith-based institutional investors, who eventually came together to form the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. An array of celebrities, including singer Paul Simon, also participated.[citation needed]

Part of this campaign centered around the so-called Sullivan Principles, authored by and named after the Rev. Dr. Leon Sullivan. Leon Sullivan was an African-American preacher in Philadelphia who in 1977 was also a board member of the corporate giant General Motors. At that time General Motors was the largest employer of black people in South Africa.[citation needed] The principles required that, as a condition of doing business, the corporation ensure that all employees be treated equally regardless of race and in an integrated environment. These principles directly conflicted with the mandated racial discrimination and segregation policies of apartheid-era South Africa.[citation needed]

While part of the anti-apartheid movement lobbied individual businesses to adopt and comply with the Sullivan Principles, the movement opened an additional front with institutional investors. Besides advocating that institutional investors withdraw any direct investments in South Africa-based companies, anti-apartheid activists also lobbied for the divestment from all U.S.-based companies having South African interests that had not yet adopted the Sullivan Principles. Institutional investors such as public pension funds were the most susceptible to these lobbying efforts.[citation needed]

Public companies with South African interests were confronted on two levels. First, concerned stockholders submitted shareholder resolutions (which were routinely rejected due to management proxy votes), and they could affect corporate reputations. Second, the companies were presented with a significant financial threat if major institutional investors decided to withdraw their investments.[7]

### Achieving critical mass (1984–1989)

[edit]

Part of a series on

Apartheid

Events

* 1948 general election
* Coloured vote constitutional crisis
* 1956 Treason Trial
* Sharpeville massacre
* Rivonia Trial
* 1971–72 Namibian contract workers strike
* Soweto uprising
* Church Street, Pretoria bombing
* Vaal uprising
* Trojan Horse Incident
* Khotso House bombing
* Cape Town peace march
* CODESA
* Assassination of Chris Hani
* Saint James Church massacre
* 1994 Bophuthatswana crisis
* Shell House massacre

Organisations

* ANC
* APLA
* IFP
* AWB
* BBB
* Black Sash
* CCB
* Conservative Party
* DP
* ECC

* FOSATU
* PP
* RP
* PFP
* HNP
* MK
* PAC
* UDF
* Broederbond
* National Party
* COSATU
* Security Branch
* SACC
* SADF
* SAIC
* SAMA
* SAP
* SACP
* State Security Council

People

* Vernon Berrangé
* P. W. Botha
* Steve Biko
* Mangosuthu Buthelezi
* F. W. de Klerk
* Ruth First
* Bram Fischer
* Arthur Goldreich
* Chris Hani
* Bantu Holomisa
* Joel Joffe
* Ahmed Kathrada
* Albert Luthuli
* Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
* Mac Maharaj
* D. F. Malan
* Nelson Mandela
* Govan Mbeki
* Thabo Mbeki
* Raymond Mhlaba
* Benjamin Moloise
* Albertina Sisulu
* Walter Sisulu
* J. G. Strijdom
* Joe Slovo
* Robert Sobukwe
* Helen Suzman
* Adelaide Tambo
* Oliver Tambo
* Eugène Terre'Blanche
* Desmond Tutu
* H. F. Verwoerd
* B. J. Vorster
* Jacob Zuma

Places

* Bantustan
* District Six
* Robben Island
* Sophiatown
* South-West Africa

Soweto
* Sun City
* Vlakplaas

Related topics

* Afrikaner nationalism
* Apartheid in popular culture
* Apartheid legislation
* Cape Qualified Franchise
* Disinvestment campaign
* Freedom Charter
* Internal resistance to apartheid
* Kairos Document
* Music in the movement against apartheid
* Nostalgia for apartheid
* Project Coast
* Sullivan Principles

* Category

* v
* t
* e

The disinvestment campaign in the United States, which had been in existence for two decades, gained a critical mass following the black political resistance to the 1983 South African constitution, a document that further solidified the system of racial segregation and discrimination. Richard Knight writes:

> In a total rejection of apartheid, black South Africans mobilized to make the townships ungovernable, black local officials resigned in droves, and the government declared a State of Emergency in 1985 and used thousands of troops to quell "unrest". Television audiences throughout the world were to watch almost nightly reports of massive resistance to apartheid, the growth of a democratic movement, and the savage police and military response.[6]

The result of the widely televised South African response was "a dramatic expansion of international actions to isolate apartheid, actions that combined with the internal situation to force dramatic changes in South Africa's international economic relations".[6]

### Higher education endowments

[edit]

Further information: 1985–1986 Dartmouth College anti-apartheid protests

Student anti-apartheid activists in the US demanded that their colleges and universities divest from companies that traded or had operations in South Africa. At many universities, students and faculty pressured the board of trustees to take action on the issue. The first anti-apartheid organization on university campuses in the United States was CUAA, founded by Ramon Sevilla at the University of California, Berkeley. Sevilla had support from Nelson Mandela, with whom he was in communication while Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, and he was also in contact with the African National Congress (ANC).[citation needed]

Some of the most effective actions in support of divestment from South Africa took place in the years 1976–1985. Sevilla travelled throughout the US and Europe gathering support for sanctions against South Africa, and he led a successful effort to force the University of California to divest all of its investments in companies doing business in South Africa. In an anti-apartheid protest in April 1986, 61 students were arrested after building a shantytown in front of the chancellor's office at UC Berkeley.[8] At Occidental College in Los Angeles, future US president Barack Obama was one of the divestment activists.[9]

As a result of these organised divestment campaigns, the boards of trustees of several colleges and universities voted to divest completely from companies with major South African interests. The first of these was Hampshire College in 1977.

These initial successes set a pattern that was later repeated at other campuses across the country. Activism surged in 1984 on the wave of public interest created by the wide television coverage of resistance efforts of black South Africans. According to Knight's analysis,[6] over the next few years the number of educational institutions fully or partially divesting from South Africa increased as follows:

| 1984  | 1987  | 1988

|
|
|

Number of institutions divesting  | 53  | 128  | 155

#### Michigan State University

[edit]

The disinvestment campaign on campuses began in 1977 at Michigan State University and Stanford University.[10][11] It had some early successes in 1978 at Michigan State University,[12][13] Columbia University,[14] and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Following the Michigan State University divestiture in 1978, the Michigan State Legislature in 1982 voted for divestiture by all of Michigan's public colleges and universities, an action later struck down as unconstitutional by the Michigan Court of Appeals in response to a suit against the Act by the University of Michigan.[15]

#### Columbia University

[edit]

The initial Columbia divestment focused largely on bonds and financial institutions directly involved with the South African regime.[16] It followed a year-long campaign initiated by students who in 1977 had worked together to block the appointment of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to an endowed chair at Columbia.[17] Broadly backed by a diverse array of student groups and many notable faculty members, the Committee Against Investment in South Africa held numerous teach-ins and demonstrations focused on the trustees' ties to the corporations doing business with South Africa. Trustee meetings were picketed and interrupted by demonstrations, culminating in the May 1978 takeover of the Graduate School of Business.[18][19]

#### Smith College

[edit]

Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, which is connected to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, through the Five College Consortium, took up the issue of South African investments several years later. In the spring semester of 1986 students at Smith protested the Board of Trustees' decision not to fully divest.[20] Student protests included a sit-in in the main administrative offices on 24 February 1986. The next day students blockaded the building, preventing staff from entering. The students expected to be arrested, but the college president at the time, Mary Maples Dunn, refused to have the students arrested.[21]

A comprehensive list of the students' demands was published on 28 February 1986.[22] The "Women at College Hall" agreed to end the blockade if the Board of Trustees agreed to "issue a statement of intent to deliberate again, with a quorum, the issue of divestment" before Spring Break, and to consider "a restructuring of the investment policy". Students also demanded that a teach-in be conducted to educate the college and the Board of Trustees on divestment and South African apartheid.

On 1 March 1986, the protest ended when administrators agreed that the trustees would re-evaluate their decision, a mandatory teach-in would be held, and amnesty would be granted to anyone involved in the sit-in and blockade.[22] As a result of student pressure, by 31 October 1988 Smith College had divested all $39 million in stocks that they held in companies working in South Africa.[23]

#### Harvard University

[edit]

Harvard University undertook only a partial divestment from South Africa and only after significant pressure.[24] Adam Sofen and Alan Wirzbicki give this description:

> Throughout the 1980s, Harvard professors for the most part avoided involvement with South Africa in protest of apartheid, and then president Derek C. Bok was a vocal supporter of work by the U.S. to prompt reform in South Africa. But the University was slow to pull its own investments out of companies doing business in South Africa, insisting that through its proxy votes, it could more effectively fight apartheid than by purging stocks from its portfolio. But after a decade of protests, Harvard did adopt a policy of selective divestment, and by the end of the 1980s was almost completely out of South Africa.[24]

#### University of California

[edit]

At the University of California Berkeley campus, student organizations conducted a campaign of civil disobedience, with 38 students arrested in 1984,[25] a semester-long sit-in with 158 arrests in 1985, and a shantytown protest on 1–4 April 1986 that resulted in a violent confrontation between protesters and police and 152 arrests.[26]

In contrast to the limited action undertaken by Harvard, in 1986 the University of California authorized the withdrawal of three billion dollars worth of investments from the apartheid state. Nelson Mandela remarked that the University of California's massive divestment was particularly significant in pressuring for an end to white-minority rule in South Africa.[27][28]

#### Gettysburg College

[edit]

In 1989, after a three-year review by the Gettysburg College Board of Trustees and a five-month campaign by the Salaam Committee—a campus group made up of students and faculty—the college divested $5.4 million from companies connected to South Africa.[29]

### States and cities

[edit]

A boycott South Africa sticker now housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

In addition to college and university campuses, anti-apartheid activists found support in city councils and state legislatures. Several states and localities passed legislation ordering the sale of South Africa-related securities. On 5 June 1978 the City and County of San Francisco passed legislation requiring them not to invest "in corporations and banks doing business in or with South Africa".[30] By the end of 1989, "26 states, 22 counties and over 90 cities had taken some form of binding economic action against companies doing business in South Africa".[6] Many public pension funds connected to these local governments were required to divest. These local governments also exerted pressure by enacting selective purchasing policies, "whereby cities give preference in bidding on contracts for goods and services to those companies who do not do business in South Africa".[6]

#### Nebraska

[edit]

Nebraska was the first U.S. state to divest from South Africa. The divestment was initiated by Ernie Chambers, the only black member of the Nebraska legislature.[31][32] Chambers was angered when he learned that the University of Nebraska–Lincoln had accepted a donation of several hundred gold Krugerrands. He introduced a nonbinding resolution calling for state pension funds that had been invested directly or indirectly in South Africa to be invested elsewhere.[33] It became state law in 1980.[31]

According to Knight, the early divestment in Nebraska caused little immediate change in business practices; David Packard of Hewlett Packard stated "I'd rather lose business in Nebraska than with South Africa."[6] The impact was magnified when other U.S. state governments adopted similar measures through the 1980s. Nebraska passed stronger legislation in 1984, mandating divestment of all funds from companies doing business in South Africa. This resulted in the divestment of $14.6 million in stocks from Nebraska's public employee pension funds.[34]

### Federal involvement

[edit]

The activity at the state and city level set the stage for action by the U.S. federal government.

#### Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act

[edit]

Main article: Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act

The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was introduced by Congressman Ronald Dellums, supported by the members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the House of Representatives, and piloted through the House by Congressman Howard Wolpe, chairman of the House Africa Subcommittee. President Ronald Reagan responded by using his veto, but surprisingly, and in testament to the strength of the anti-apartheid movement, the Republican-controlled Senate overrode his veto. Knight gives this description of the act:

> The Act banned new U.S. investment in South Africa, sales to the police and military, and new bank loans, except for the purpose of trade. Specific measures against trade included the prohibition of the import of agricultural goods, textiles, shellfish, steel, iron, uranium, and the products of state-owned corporations.[6]

The results of the Act were mixed in economic terms, according to Knight:[6] Between 1985 and 1987, U.S. imports from South Africa declined by 35%, but the trend reversed in 1988 when imports increased by 15%. Knight, citing a 1989 study by the General Accounting Office, attributes some of the increase in imports in 1988 to lax enforcement of the 1986 Act. He writes that a "major weakness of the Act is that it does little to prohibit exports to South Africa, even in such areas as computers and other capital goods".[6]

#### Budget Reconciliation Act

[edit]

A second federal measure, introduced by Representative Charles Rangel in 1987 as an amendment to the Budget Reconciliation Act, removed the ability of U.S. corporations to obtain tax reimbursements for taxes paid in South Africa. The result was that U.S. corporations operating in South Africa were subject to double taxation. According to Knight:

> The sums of money involved are large. According to the Internal Revenue Service, taxes involved in 1982 were $211,593,000 on taxable income of $440,780,000. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in South Africa has estimated that the measure increases the tax bill for U.S. companies from 57.5% to 72% of profits in South Africa.[6]

#### Further legislative efforts

[edit]

An additional and much harsher sanctions bill was passed by the House of Representatives in August 1988. This bill mandated "the withdrawal of all U.S. companies from South Africa, the sale by U.S. residents of all investments in South African companies and an end to most trade, except for the import of certain strategic minerals".[6] In the end, the bill did not become law, as it was not able to pass the Senate. Even so, the fact that such a harsh bill made any progress at all through Congress "alerted both the South African government and U.S. business that significant further sanctions were likely to be forthcoming" if the political situation in South Africa remained unchanged.

## Effects on South Africa

[edit]

### Economic effects

[edit]

Main article: Economic history of South Africa § Sanctions

Four exchange control stamps in a South African passport from the mid-1980s allowing the passport holder to take a particular amount of currency out of the country. Exchange controls such as these were imposed by the South African government to restrict the outflow of capital from the country.

While post-colonial countries in Africa had been the first to impose sanctions on South Africa, these measures had little effect because of the relatively small economies of those countries.[failed verification] The disinvestment campaign impacted South Africa only after the major Western nations, including the United States, got involved beginning in mid-1984. From 1984 onwards, South Africa experienced considerable capital flight because of disinvestment and the repayment of foreign loans.[6] The net capital movement out of South Africa was:

* R9.2 billion in 1985
* R6.1 billion in 1986
* R3.1 billion in 1987
* R5.5 billion in 1988

The capital flight triggered a dramatic decline in the international exchange rate of the South African rand. The currency decline made imports more expensive, and this in turn caused inflation in South Africa to rise at a steep 12–15% per year.[6]

The South African government attempted to restrict the damaging outflow of capital. Knight writes that "in September 1985 it imposed a system of exchange control and a debt repayments standstill. Under exchange control, South African residents are generally prohibited from removing capital from the country and foreign investors can only remove investments via the financial rand, which is traded at a 20% to 40% discount compared to the commercial rand. This means companies that disinvest get significantly fewer dollars for the capital they withdraw."[6]

## Criticism of disinvestment

[edit]

Within South Africa there was opposition to disinvestment among both black and white political leaders. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Chief Minister of KwaZulu and president of the Inkatha Freedom Party, slammed sanctions, stating that "They can only harm all the people of Southern Africa. They can only lead to more hardships, particularly for the blacks."[35] The Members of Parliament Helen Suzman and Harry Schwarz, who opposed apartheid and were leaders of the Progressive Federal Party, also argued that disinvestment would cause further economic hardships for black people and that this would ultimately worsen the political climate for negotiations. Suzman said that such sanctions are "self-defeating, wrecking the economy and do not assist anybody irrespective of race". Schwarz said, "Morality is cheap when someone else is paying."[36]

Many politicians outside of South Africa also criticised disinvestment because of its economic impact on black South Africans. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher described sanctions and disinvestment as "the way of poverty, starvation and destroying the hopes of the very people – all of them – whom you wish to help."[37] John Major, at that time her Foreign Secretary, said disinvestment would "feed white consciences outside South Africa, not black bellies within it",[38] although much later, in 2013, he said that the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher had been wrong to oppose tougher sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid era.[39]

Many conservatives opposed the disinvestment campaign, accusing its advocates of hypocrisy for not also proposing that the same sanctions be levelled on either the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China.[40]

Murray Rothbard, a libertarian economist, also opposed this policy, asserting that the most direct adverse impact of the boycott would be felt by the black workers in that country, and that the best way to remedy the problem of apartheid was by promoting trade and the growth of free market capitalism in South Africa.[41]

Ronald Reagan, who was the U.S. President during the time the disinvestment movement was at its peak, also opposed it, instead favouring a policy of "constructive engagement" with the Pretoria government.[42]

## See also

[edit]

* Anti-Apartheid Movement
* Anti-Apartheid movement in the United States
* Academic boycotts of South Africa
* Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
* Disinvestment
* Economic history of South Africa
* International sanctions during apartheid
* Northeast Coalition for the Liberation of Southern Africa
* Socially responsible investing
* Disinvestment from Israel

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "The Fergusson Years: Vassar, 1986–2006" Archived 28 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Vassar College Libraries Archives & Special Collections. Poughkeepsie, NY. 2006.
2. ^ See the debate in Nature: "Boycott of Israel? It worked for South Africa", Steven Rose and Hilary Rose, Nature, volume 417, p. 221 (2002) and the response "Did an academic boycott help to end apartheid?", George Fink, Nature, Volume 417, Issue 6890, p. 690 (2002).
3. ^ Reddy, E.S. (2007). "United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid Reports". Retrieved 3 October 2023.
4. ^ a b c d e f Arianna Lisson, "The Anti-Apartheid Movement, Britain and South Africa: Anti-Apartheid Protest vs Real Politik" Archived 7 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Ph.D. Dissertation, 15 September 2000
5. ^ "Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa & International solidarity with the liberation struggle in South Africa". United Nations General Assembly. 20 November 1987. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Richard Knight. Chapter: "Sanctions, Disinvestment, and U.S. Corporations in South Africa". Sanctioning Apartheid (Africa World Press), 1990
7. ^ "The new South African 'pass laws' require a robust corporate response -". Businessday NG. 12 September 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
8. ^ "Around the Nation; 61 Arrested at Berkeley in Protest of Apartheid". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2 April 1986.
9. ^ Jackson, David. "Obama inspired by anti-apartheid campaign". USA TODAY. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
10. ^ Schutt, Randy. "A Powerful and Inspiring Campaign: A Short History of SCRIP's Efforts to End Stanford University's Support of South African Apartheid in 1977". Vernal Education Project. 3 February 1998.
11. ^ D. (pseudonym), Bob. "Students Organize Against Stanford's Investment Policy". Grapevine. Volume 5, Number 6. Palo Alto, Calif. June 1977.
12. ^ "African Activist Archive".
13. ^ U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (1985). The Anti-Apartheid Act of 1985. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 213.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. ^ "Columbia Senate Supports Selling South African Stocks Selectively". The New York Times. 7 May 1978.
15. ^ "Michigan Law on South Africa Investments Upset". The New York Times. 4 February 1988.
16. ^ David Rosenberg (8 June 1978). "Trustees vote for divestiture from backers of S. African government". Columbia Spectator. p. 1.
17. ^ Mary Alice McDonaugh (3 March 1977). "400 sign petition against offering Kissinger faculty post; Anthony Lewis of the Times also blasts former Secretary". Columbia Spectator. p. 1.
18. ^ "Demonstration at Columbia". The New York Daily News. 2 May 1978.
19. ^ "Student Sit-in at Columbia". The New York Post. 2 May 1978 – via Getty Images.[permanent dead link]
20. ^ "Clark, Smith Decide to Divest". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
21. ^ "Dozens of students today began their third day occupying... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
22. ^ a b Smith College Archives. "College Hall Occupation Oral History Project". 5 College Archives and Manuscript Collections. Smith College Archives. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
23. ^ "AROUND THE NATION; Smith College to End South Africa Investments". The New York Times. 28 October 1986. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
24. ^ a b A CONFLICTED RELATIONSHIP: Harvard supported South Africa through investments, but partially divested under protest Archived 7 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine in Harvard Honors Nelson Mandela Archived 13 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Adam A. Sofen and Alan E. Wirzbicki.
25. ^ Panel discussion, 6 October 2014, speaker Andrea Prichett, at 47:30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQfF1702dQI
26. ^ Smith, Chris A. (17 September 2014). "Economic Leverage: UC Students Fought Tooth and Nail to Divest from South Africa". California University Alumni Association.
27. ^ "South African Apartheid - Coalition for Social Responsibility at Michigan State University". Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
28. ^ How students helped end apartheid. University of California, May 2, 2018
29. ^ White, Lauren (30 September 2016). "1990: Students Take Action to Protest Apartheid".
30. ^ Milk, Harvey (2012). The Harvey Milk Interviews: In His Own Words. Vince Emery Productions. ISBN 978-0-9725898-8-8., p. 328.
31. ^ a b Lansing, Paul (1981). "The Divestment of United States Companies in South Africa and Apartheid". Nebraska Law Review. 60 (2): 301. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
32. ^ Catania, Sara (2006). "The Importance of Being Ernie". Mother Jones. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
33. ^ Barker, Karlyn (8 February 1985). "States, Cities Fight Apartheid". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
34. ^ Kelly, Michael (11 December 2013). "Fight against apartheid came to Nebraska in 1980s with gift of South African gold coins". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
35. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2011.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
36. ^ Belling, Suzanne. "Israel Economic Team - No Talk of Sanctions". South Africa: The Herald Times. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
37. ^ Thatcher, Margaret (30 May 1989). "Press Conference ending visit to Zimbabwe". Margaret Thatcher Foundation (Transcription of audio: noted "abysmal sound quality". A copy of the tape survives in the Thatcher MSS. In fact, MT's voice is quite easy to follow. The questions are often much less clear.). Margaret Thatcher Foundation Archive. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
38. ^ Theakston, Kevin (2004). British Foreign Secretaries Since 1974. Routledge. p. 190\. ISBN 1-135-76637-1.
39. ^ "Sir John Major: Margaret Thatcher's government was wrong to oppose South Africa sanctions", The Independent, 10 December 2013
40. ^ Posnikoff, Judith F. (January 1997). "Disinvestment from South Africa: They did well by doing good". Contemporary Economic Policy. 15 (1): 76–86\. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1997.tb00456.x. ISSN 1074-3529.
41. ^ Rothbard, Murray. "The Crusade Against South Africa". Making Economic Sense. Chapter 90. Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 1995. Online edition. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
42. ^ Davies, J.E. (2008). Constructive Engagement? Chester Crocker and American Policy in South Africa, Namibia and Angola 1981–1988. Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: James Currey. ISBN 978-1847013040.

## Further reading

[edit]

* "For U.S. Firms in South Africa, The Threat of Coercive Sullivan Principles"[unfit]. The Heritage Foundation. 12 November 1984
* "On 'Constructive Engagement' in South Africa". The MIT Tech. 105(47). 5 November 1985.
* "The Choice for U.S. Policy in South Africa: Reform or Vengeance"[unfit]. The Heritage Foundation. 25 July 1986
* "Misconceptions about U.S. policy toward South Africa". U.S. Department of State Bulletin. September 1986.
* Richard Knight. Chapter: "Sanctions, Disinvestment, and U.S. Corporations in South Africa". Sanctioning Apartheid (Africa World Press). 1990
* "Disinvestment from South Africa: They Did Well by Doing Good". Contemporary Economic Policy. XV(1):76–86. January 1997
* Robert Kinloch Massie, Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years, Doubleday, New York, 1997

## External links

[edit]

* African Activist Archive – more than 7,000 documents, posters, T-shirts, buttons, photos, videos, and memories of activism in the U.S. to support the struggles of African peoples against apartheid, colonialism, and social injustice, the 1950s–1990s. Also includes a directory of African activist organizations across the U.S.
* Documenting the U.S. Solidarity Movement: With reflections on the sanctions and divestment campaigns
* U.S. Economic Involvement with Apartheid South Africa
* An Analysis of U.S. Disinvestment from South Africa: Unity, Rights, and Justice
* Black South African Opinion on Disinvestment
* The Crusade Against South Africa
* Inkatha Freedom Party – Inkatha and the disinvestment campaign
* Image of UCLA students in sit-down protest with a banner reading "UC Out of South Africa! Divest Now" as two UC Police officers watch Los Angeles, California, 1986. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

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Economy of South Africa

By province|

* Western Cape
* Gauteng

Flag of South Africa

Natural resources|

* Mining industry
* Coal
* Agriculture
* Whaling

Industry|

* Automotive industry

Services|

* Banks
* Gambling
* Tourism
* Ecotourism
* LGBT tourism
* Telecommunications
* Nuclear power
* Power stations

Economic history|

* Mineral Revolution
* Witwatersrand Gold Rush
* Great Depression
* Disinvestment

Affirmative action|

* Black Economic Empowerment
* Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
* Qualifying Small Enterprises
* Scorecard
* Exempted Micro Enterprises

Macroeconomics|

* National Treasury
* Taxation
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Misc.|

* Corruption
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Political history of South Africa

Defunct polities|

* Kingdom of Mapungubwe (c. 1075–c. 1220)
* Dutch Cape Colony (1652–1806)
* Mthethwa Paramountcy (c. 1780–1817)
* Ndwandwe Kingdom (c. 1780–1819)
* Cape Colony (1795–1910)
* Zulu Kingdom (1816–1897)
* Natalia Republic (1839–1843)
* Natal Colony (1843–1910)
* Orange Free State (1854–1902)
* South African Republic (1856–1902)
* Griqualand East (1861–1879)
* Griqualand West (1870–1873)
* Goshen (1882–1883)
* Stellaland (1882–1885)
* Nieuwe Republiek (1884–1888)
* Upingtonia (1885–1887)
* Klein Vrystaat (1886–1891)
* Orange River Colony (1902–1910)
* Transvaal Colony (1902–1910)
* Union of South Africa (1910–1961)
* Transkei (1976–1994)
* Bophuthatswana (1977–1994)
* Venda (1979–1994)
* Ciskei (1981–1994)

Events|

| Pre-colonial|

* Bantu migrations
* Battle of Salt River

|

1652–1815|

* Dutch settlement
* French Huguenot settlement
* Khoikhoi–Dutch Wars
* Xhosa Wars
* Battle of Muizenberg
* Battle of Blaauwberg
* Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814

1815–1910|

* Mfecane
* 1820 Settlers
* Great Trek
* Boer Republics
* Transvaal Civil War
* Mineral Revolution
* Witwatersrand Gold Rush
* South African Wars
* South Africa Act 1909 (National Convention)

1910–1948|

* South West Africa campaign
* Maritz rebellion
* Rand Rebellion
* Great Depression
* 1946 African Mine Workers' Union strike
* Bantustans

Apartheid|

* 1948 general election
* Apartheid legislation
* Pass laws
* Internal resistance
* Coloured-vote constitutional crisis
* Defiance Campaign
* Congress of the People
* Freedom Charter
* Women's March 1956
* 1957 Alexandra bus boycott
* Sharpeville massacre
* 1960 republic referendum
* International isolation
* UN Resolution 1761
* UNSC Resolution 591
* Academic boycott
* Disinvestment
* Constructive engagement
* Tar Baby Option
* Sporting boycott
* Olympics
* Rugby union
* Rivonia Trial
* Durban Moment
* Border War
* Israeli alliance
* Israel–South Africa Agreement
* Mafeje affair
* Soweto Uprising
* Weapons of mass destruction
* Project Coast
* Church Street bombing
* 1983 constitutional referendum
* Vaal uprising
* Langa massacre
* Rubicon speech
* Operation Vula
* Dakar Conference
* Transkei coup d'état
* Ciskei coup d'état
* Venda coup d'état
* Third Force
* CODESA
* Storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre
* Bisho massacre
* 1992 apartheid referendum
* Saint James Church massacre
* Bophuthatswana crisis
* Shell House massacre
* Sauer Commission

Post-
apartheid|

* 1994 general election
* Government of National Unity
* Reconstruction and Development Programme
* Truth and Reconciliation Commission
* Arms Deal
* Floor crossing
* Soweto bombings
* African Renaissance
* Travelgate
* Xenophobia
* Attack on Kennedy Road
* Blikkiesdorp
* Marikana massacre
* 2012 Western Cape farm workers' strike
* Nkandlagate
* Racism
* 2014 platinum strike
* #RhodesMustFall protests
* #FeesMustFall student protests
* Tshwane riots
* 2019 service delivery protests
* 2019 Johannesburg riots
* COVID-19 pandemic
* 2020 Phala Phala Robbery
* 2021 unrest
* Lady R incident

Political culture|

* African nationalism
* Afrikaner Calvinism
* Afrikaner nationalism
* Anarchism
* Azania
* Baasskap
* Boerehaat
* Black Consciousness Movement
* Cape Independence
* Day of the Vow
* Greater South Africa
* Honorary whites
* Rooi gevaar
* Slavery
* Swart gevaar
* Uitlander
* Volkstaat

Defunct
organisations|

| Civic and political
organisations|

* Afrikaner Bond
* Afrikaner Broederbond
* Afrikaner Party
* AITUP
* APO
* AVF
* BPC
* Black Sash
* Boerestaat Party
* CDA
* CNIP
* CTEG
* COD
* Congress Alliance
* COSG
* CP
* DLF
* Dominion Party
* DP (1973–1977)
* DP (1989–2000)
* DPP
* DSM
* ECC
* FA
* FD
* Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners
* GNP
* Het Volk
* HNP (Herenigde)
* HNP (Herstigte)
* IDASA
* ID
* IP
* ISL
* Jeugkrag
* Johannesburg Reform Committee
* Labour Party (1910–1958)
* Labour Party (1969–1994)
* Liberal Party (1953–1968)
* NA
* NCP
* Natal Indian Congress
* NLP
* NNP
* NP
* NPP
* NRP
* NUSAS
* Occupy
* Orangia Unie
* Oranjewerkers
* Orde Boerevolk
* PAVN
* PFP
* Progressive Party (Cape Colony)
* Progressive Party
* PRP
* Radio Freedom
* Reform Party
* SABP
* SADECO
* SAIC
* SASO
* SAYCO
* SAYRCO
* South African Party (Cape Colony)
* South African Party (1911–1934)
* South African Party (1977–1980)
* TNIP
* Torch Commando
* UFP
* United Party
* Unionist Party
* National Party of Venda
* Volksparty
* Workers Party
* WOSA

|

Trade unions and
social movements|

* APF
* BCM
* BLATU
* CNETU
* CTSWU
* FCWU
* FNETU
* FOSATU
* ICU
* IWW
* MUSA
* NEUM
* NURHS
* PAWE
* SAAPAWU
* SACTU
* SAIF
* SARHU
* SATUC
* Die Spoorbund
* UDF
* Umkosi Wezintaba

Paramilitary and
terrorist organisations|

* APLA
* ARM
* AWB
* BBB
* Boeremag
* Greyshirts
* MK
* Ossewabrandwag
* Orde van die Dood
* PAGAD
* SANF

Histories of
political parties|

* African National Congress
* Democratic Alliance
* Pan Africanist Congress of Azania

Category

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

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*[c.]: circa