THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST BRITISH BANK INVOLVEMENT IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The British 'banks campaign' was part of the international pressure to implement financial sanctions against apartheid South Africa. South Africa was vulnerable to a 'banks campaign' because of its dependence on foreign investment and, from the 1970s, on loan capital in particular. Britain was the most important source of foreign capital to South Africa, and was home to the parent companies of South Africa's two largest banks. The campaign urged complete disengagement of British banks from South Africa: withdrawal by those banks with direct operations and a moratorium on lending. Both these goals were eventually achieved. Despite the wealth of scholarship in 'apartheid history' surprisingly no comprehensive study has been made of the British anti-apartheid movement (although it was one of the most influential national movements), let alone of this specific campaign. This article relies heavily on primary documentation (pamphlets, reports and newspapers) and personal interviews with the individuals involved, to establish the chronology of the British 'banks campaign' for the first time. 'The straw that broke the camel's back was the economy. We couldn't afford apartheid anymore.'l Pik Botha, interview with Donald Woods, 1999 THE FIRST FORMAL DEMAND for the severance of international economic links with South Africa was issued by Albert Luthuli, President of the African National Congress (ANC), in December 1959.2 Some three decades later, the ANC concluded: 'Financial sanctions have been a critical pressure point which has pushed the process of political transformation to where it is today'.3 Among the initiatives calculated to isolate the apartheid regime economically was the campaign against foreign banks involved in South Africa. This involvement took two forms: the control of subsidiaries and the provision of loan finance. The belief that such activities buttressed apartheid led to the development of an international campaign The author recently graduated in History form Trinity College, Cambridge, and is currently undertaking research in the history of apartheid at the University of Cape Town. Personal interviews proved crucial to this study and she would like to thank those who shared their recollections and opinions. 1. Interview with Donald Woods, author and South African former newspaper editor, February 1999. 2. United Nations, The United Nations and Apartheid 1948-1994, (Geneva, 1994), p. 243. 3. ANC, Press Release, London, August 1991.