Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

harmonized offidal aid programs aimed both at emergency needs
and at economic rehabilitation stimulating economic pwth and
assisted thirdly, by technid assistance, technology trader,
investment, and enhaneed hde.
At present, however, the policies of the West are far from
harmonized, and in certain respects they are rnuhtally contradic-
tory. Some counbies have imposed sanctions against South
Africa whereas, in the case of others, South Africa has been able
to expand trade to lessen the impact of effective sanctions. Some
governments fund development projects which they know risk
being destroyed by insurgents out of South AfrIca or supplied by
South Africa. Yet little is done concretely to persuade South
Africa to pull back from its escalation of the regiod conflict.
From Economic Sanctions to Politid Change
That further economic sanctions would have a considerable
and adverse impact upon the South fim economy is now
widely accepted both hide and outside gove~nment eircles. For
instance, as the Minister of Fice observed in his 1988 budget
speech, the economy is one '%unstrung by ~ancti~ns."I~ It is
necessary, however, to ask whether ment and extended
sanctions will assist in the process of achieving a free democra~c
society in that cauntq. Some tentative points can be made.
Whatever success sandions have in moving South fica
further on the path to democracy, the effect of sanctions is likely
to be only margird While external pressures can help, few if
any people believe that their effects will be a major factor in the
intad poIitical dynamics that must necessarily remain the
crud element in the pmess. But will sanctions have a positive
(albeit) limited effect in achieving the politid objectives sought,
or will they, as the critics ague, have a perverse and opposite
effect of frustrating even further the achievement of thw
objectives?
There are a number of factors, some positive and some
negative, which support the case for increased sanctions from the
viewpoint of the political objectives desired, In the h t place,
there has been no mndusive evidence during the 1980s that the