Multinational firms avoid U.N. hearings

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 6

Multinational firms avoid U.N. hearings

NZPA-AAP New York The former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, has warned international companies against boycotting United Nations hearings into their role in South Africa. Mr Fraser accused 1068 multinational corporations yesterday of refusing to appear before the 11-member panel he was appointed to chair. He offered 50 of the biggest corporations a second chance and repeated the invitation to them yesterday. “I find it difficult to believe that over 1000 corporations are going to unanimously, and of their own view, decide that they are not going to attend,” he said. Mr Fraser left the chair during hearings, to call a news conference, at which he announced the business boycott. In June the United Nations secretariat approached all 1068 corporations identified as having more than 10 per cent holdings in companies or in-

terests in South Africa, inviting them to appear before the panel. None of the companies would agree to testify before the panel and many did not reply. “When I learnt that, first thing this week, I wrote to the chief executive officers of 50 major corporations,” he said. Only one European company had replied, politely telling Mr Fraser that it would boycott the hearings. The panel was hearing submissions from a wide range of people, including representatives of South African business groups, trade unions and independent experts. He stopped short of criticising companies for refusing to appear, saying that the South African Government had more power over corporations through special security legislation and key industry legislation, than any other Government in the world. He warned them that their silence could be interpreted as implying support for apartheid. Earlier at the hearing

white representatives of the Association of South African Chambers of Commerce and the Federated Chambers of Industry, said that they were in the vanguard of a quiet revolution in South Africa to end apartheid. They said that they had advocated “one man one vote” and produced a freshly prepared 120-page report called, “The Removal of Discrimination Against Blacks in the Political Economy of the Republic of South Africa” as proof of their bona fides. The report looks at constitutional options to eliminate apartheid. Mr J. van Zyl, the executive director of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of South Africa, urged countries considering economic sanctions against South Africa to freeze such action. Stronger economic measures could cripple the South African economy, he said, and force the authorities to enter a state of siege, in which reform would be much more difficult.