Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

154 Sanctioning Aprrfheid
Sanctiom Busting and Transnational Corporate
Links
In response to international anti-apartheid pressures,
includmg the 1986 US san&ons, US transnational manmrporatiom
and banla altered fie cha~~~els through which they
transfer and hame the high tech South Ahids minority needs.
To close them eneIy will r@e specific rn-, some of
which may neclessitate further research,
By 1989, about 330 US f- had taken steps to reduce their
visible presence in south Africa. Most m-g &ms,
however, agreed to continue to supply technologid knowhaw,
inputsI and, in some casesI finance, to Sautlr African firms.= For
example, after IBM and General Motors sold their Ssuth African
affiliates to local firezs they continued to sell their ~ logies
to them, The local fimrs can sell their output to the Swth
African government and ib agencies as well as to private buyers.
Several US companies like Ford sold their South African
holdings to the AngIo American Group's Sip, incrtrasing that
group's monopolistic domination in the transport sector of the
Sorrth hcmn economy. Chtysler had earlier sold a maprity of
the shares in its Sou& filcan affiliate to Sigma. Both Cbyder
and Ford companies continue to sell their fechnologies to
kahg advantage of US banks' short-term trade h c e in the
P-
The tramnationals also helped the Anglo American Group
to further cen.tralize its controI over South African ~~
in~tislations.~ In 1987, the British Bank, Barclays, which together
with Standard owned about two thirds of South Afrim's banking
assets, sold its South African business in its entirety to the Anglo
American Groupw CiLimrp, which had links with Anglo
through ~ O R (see C below), ~ followed suit. The Group united
their holdings to create €he National aank of South Africa. This
change of legal status gave the Bank more Morn to deal with
South -can government agencies and parastatals. It did not
end either former parent company's continued provision of trade
k c e to keep esseniial imports coming into South Africa.