DISINVESTMENT IN S.A

Disinvestment (or divestment) from South Africa was first advocated in the 1960s, in protest of South Africa's system of apartheid, but was not implemented on a significant scale until the mid-1980s. The disinvestment campaign, after being realized in federal legislation enacted in 1986 by the United States, is credited by some as pressuring the South African Government to embark On negotiations ultimately leading to the dismantling of the Apartheid system.

UNITED NATIONS 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. All Western nations were unhappy with the call for sanctions and as a result boycotted the committee. Following this passage of this resolution the UK-based Anti-Apartheid Movement spearheaded the arrangements for an international conference on sanctions to be held in London in April 1964. According to 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 US 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."

REJECTION BY THE WEST 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 US, 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. According to Lisson, Britain's rejection was premised on its economic interests in South Africa, which would be put at risk if any type of meaningful economic sanctions were put in place.

SULLIVAN PRINCIPLES In 1977, Rev. Leon Sullivan, an African-American minister, was a member of the board of General Motors. At the time, General Motors was one of the largest corporations in the United States. General Motors also happened to be the largest employer of blacks in South Africa, a country which was pursuing a harsh program of state-sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination targeted primarily at the country's indigenous black population. Sullivan, looking back on his anti-Apartheid efforts, recalled: “Starting with the work place, I tightened the screws step by step and raised the bar step by step. Eventually I got to the point where I said that companies must practice corporate civil disobedience against the laws and I threatened South Africa and said in two years Mandela must be freed, apartheid must end, and blacks must vote or else I'll bring every American company I can out of South Africa.”

UNIVERSITIES Students organized to demand that their universities "divest", meaning that the universities were to cease investing in companies that traded or had operations in South Africa. At many universities, many students and faculty protested in order to force action on the issue.  1984 1987 1988 Number of institutions divesting 53 128 155

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SMITH COLLEGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

STATES AND CITIES In addition to campuses, anti-apartheid activists found concerned and sympathetic legislators in cities and states. Several states and localities did pass legislation ordering the sale of such securities, most notably the City and County of San Francisco, which passed legislation on June 5, 1978 not to invest “in corporations and banks doing business in or with South Africa.” The result was that "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." Many public pension funds connected to these local governments were legislated to disinvestment from South African companies. These local governments also exerted pressure via 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."

COMPREHENSIVE ANTI – APARTHEID ACT Banned new US investment Prohibits imports Sales to the police and military BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT 1987 – tax reimbursements – double the tax LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS August 1988 – withdrawal of all US companies in S.A

OPPOSITION TO THE SANCTIONS Black leaders were against the sanctions as they said it brought more poverty to the Black Community Margaret Thatcher also disagreed with the sanctions stating that it not only affected the white people but also black employees.