U.S. moves against S. Africa

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 44

U.S. moves against S. Africa

By

HUGH NEVILL,

NZPA correspondent Washington

Moves to cut financial ties with South Africa are spreading fast throughout the United States.

Congress is debating a number of measures designed to cut some ties, especially export of militarily sensitive goods, and to institutionalise a code of conduct that some American companies trading in South Africa have accepted voluntarily. The Mayor of Los Angeles, Mr Tom Bradley, proposes an unprecedented tax on the sale of South African gold krugerrands.

Mr Bradley has also asked the city council to cut all financial ties to American companies doing business in South Africa. Twenty per cent of the city’s ?4 billion pension fund is invested in American companies with South African ties. Mr Bradley suggests that these investments be sold over several years to ensure no sudden loss of revenue.

Proceeds from the tax on the krugerrands would finance an “anti-apartheid corporation” which would monitor the South African activities of American corporations and promote antiapartheid education in schools.

More than 20 cities and five states have already decided to cut ties with firms doing business in South Africa, withdrawing investment and refusing to buy their products. Similar laws are pending in 29 more states and many cities. An uncounted number of universities and other institutions have cut investments, and their number continues to grow. In Washington D.C., meanwhile, protesters continue to parade daily outside the South African embassy. More than 2000 have been arrested for crossing police lines during the 25 weeks of demonstrations there, often spending the

night in jail, but all charges have been dropped so far. The United States Attorney’s office said anyone arrested a second time would be put on trial.

It claims that the decision not to press charges was to avoid clogging the court system. The protesters maintain the decision was made to avoid giving them a platform for their views. Five demonstrators, one of whom was a district of Columbia delegate, Mr Walter Fauntroy, who sits in Congress, jumped a counter at the Washington D.C. office of Deak-Perera, a major foreign currency trading office. They then began a sit-in to protest against Deak-Perera’s sale of krugerrands.

The company responded by shutting up shop, declining initially to lay charges, leaving the protesters there with their vacuum flasks, sandwiches, and portable

lavatories under the watchful eye of a security guard. Protesters also paraded outside, saying South Africa made SUSSSO million (¥1215.5 million) a year from sales of krugerrands in America.

Police arrested the five, charging them with unlawful entry, but a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s office said it had not been decided whether the charges would be pressed. Congressmen who travelled to South Africa recently were disturbed to discover that the American embassy there pays some black employees only 50c an hour. The House of Representatives consequently adopted without debate a proposal that the embassy and American consulates there be required to abide by the “Sullivan Principles” on pay and conditions, already adopted by some American firms there.