Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

elevance: people were asked directly whether these new polides
and actions amounted to a meaningful change in policy and
whether this had influenced their attitudes toward the US.
The Sanctions Act of October 1986
In October 1986, overriding the veto of the President, the US
Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Aa of 1986.
hbmiarrees were asked whether they thought sanctions had any
impact, matierial, psychologiml or otherwise, and whether they
thought black South Alricans had been pleased by the passing of
the Ad.
A large proporlion of the group were clearly not familiar
with the contents of the Act. Most of those who were smcally
asked about this admitted that they did not know much detail
about tfie Act, and they did not think that most others did A
university rsearch assodate said: "People are pleased with
anything anti-South African. If it puts South Africa on trial,
god But people are not familk with the details. Even I am
not familiar with the details and I am a resear&er."
The explanations given for this apparent lack of attention to
an Act which, the previous year, had been seen as so important
were varied. One interpretation (mentioned by a few people)
related to the mindding of the passing of the Act with a moment
of great pressure on black South Africans. Also, because of the
st& of emqpcy, black organizations were not allowed to call
mdgs to inform &eir followers of the mntents of the legis-
lation. People had come to rely on their organizations for the
dissemination of this kind of information Sanctions came at a
time of severe official restriction on black political communica-
tion; there was little opportunity to explain or to hold open
discusion. A few people mmmented that their lack of knowl-
edge resulted from their having been in prison at the time of
enactment and for a further eight or nine months thereafkr. Yet
others argued that they themselves, as well as people they knew,
did not take the contents seriously because of a deeply felt
mistrust of and cynicism about American actions in South Africa.