Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

High-Tech Sanctions 187
Case One: US Techtrology for "Commercial, Non-Military Use"
In 1980, the Financial Ahil reported on an advanced new
workplace surveillance system that was taking South Africa's
mining industry by storm.'' The innovative new "Labour
Information System" is a locally assembled electronic network
which automatically reads workers' coded ideni33cation cards,
and "provides full information on every worker, from his ethnic
pup to his merit rating, and also keeps tabs on where every
worker is at any one time." A microprocessor made by the US
manufacturer Ontel functions as the most crucial part of the
---the "electronic brain" which controls the network The
'labour Information System" has been installed in 25 South
African mines.
"A general-purpose computer could have many applica-
tions," said a US On@ representative. "We don't have knowl-
edge of what they use it for," he added, Ontel stopped selling
equipment in South Africa after it arranged for a local corpora-
tion to manufacture the microprocessor.
This case apparently involved a straightforward commercial
tramaction in which Oritel simply sold its microprocessor to the
makers of the "Labour Information System" and later sold the
know-how for the microprocessor itself. Despite the repressive
potential of such a system, it seem unlikely that the expanded
US export regulations put in place in the wake of the Anti-
Apartheid Ad would prevent any transaction of this type from
&g because Ontel's partner is apparently a avilian entity.
The Conmerce Department regulations have little e£fect on US
sales to avilian companies and end-users in South Africa.
Case Two: US Technology for 'Won-Military Gozlemmetrt Use"
For several years, IBM computers have provided the brains
for much of South Africa's transportation system. In 1978, it was
reported that the railways had established a new computerized
tracking system based on two IBM central roc
linked up 600 terminals across the country.' ? The -unitsthat network, which
also uses Data Generaf and Westinghouse equipment, permits
ope"at0x-s to monitor the exact load, location, and destination of
any fight in the country. In January 1986, the government
announced &at it planned to spend at least R13.7 million on IBM