International sanctions during apartheid

On 7 August 1963 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181, calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa and that very year the Special Committee Against Apartheid would encourage and oversee plans of action against the country.

[2] On 7 August 1963 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181 calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa, and that very year, the Special Committee Against Apartheid would encourage and oversee plans of action against the regime.

[citation needed] Following this passage of this resolution the UK-based Anti-Apartheid Movement spearheaded the arrangements for an international conference on sanctions to be held in London in April 1964.

[4] While international opposition to apartheid grew, the Nordic countries, and Sweden in particular, provided both moral and financial support for the African National Congress (ANC).

The Nixon administration implemented a policy known as the Tar Baby Option, pursuant to which the US maintained close relations with the Apartheid South African government.

[11] Many conservatives opposed the disinvestment campaign, accusing its advocates of hypocrisy for not also proposing that the same sanctions be leveled on either the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China.

[citation needed] Libertarian Murray Rothbard also opposed this policy, asserting that the most-direct adverse impact of the boycott would actually be felt by the black workers in that country, and the best way to remedy the problem of apartheid was by promoting trade and the growth of free market capitalism in South Africa.

[15] While disinvestment, boycotts and sanctions aimed at the removal of the apartheid system, there was also considerable opposition from within the anti-apartheid movement within South Africa coming from both black and white leaders.

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Chief Minister of KwaZulu and president of the Inkatha Freedom Party slammed sanctions, stating that "They can only harm all the people of Southern Africa.

Both politicians of the Progressive Federal Party, they argued that disinvestment would cause further economic hardships for black people, which would ultimately worsen the political climate for negotiations.

By 1989, a bipartisan Republican and Democratic initiative in the US favoured economic sanctions (realised as the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986), the release of Nelson Mandela and a negotiated settlement involving the ANC.

[25][26][27] The effect of Western influence in the anti-apartheid movement and specifically US/UK economic and political considerations in refusing many sanctions until the late 80s is still a debated topic.

[28][29][30] While post-colonial African countries had already imposed sanctions on South Africa in solidarity with the Defiance Campaign, these measures had little effect because of the relatively small economies of those involved.

[failed verification] The disinvestment campaign only impacted South Africa after the major Western nations, including the United States, got involved beginning in mid-1984.

Ironically, during the 1980s gold reached its highest price as a result of international tensions reaping huge profits for the mining company conglomerates.

[citation needed] In 1993, Time magazine asked Nelson Mandela if economic sanctions helped to bring an end to the apartheid system.

Countries that issued sanctions against South Africa during apartheid.
South Africa
Countries that issued sanctions
European Economic Community members that issued sanctions collectively
London bus in 1989 carrying the "Boycott Apartheid" message.
Four exchange control stamps in a South African passport from the mid-1980s allowing the passport holder to take a particular amount of currency out of the country. Exchange controls such as these were imposed by the South African government to restrict the outflow of capital from the country.