Contents: THE DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT IN THE US • GOVERNMENT SPONSORED TRIPS • REGISTERED LOBBYISTS • BASKIN AND SEARS • SMATHERS, SYMINGTON, AND HERLONG • KIMBERLEY CAMERON HALLAMORE • SOUTH AFRICA FOUNDATION • US-NAMIBIA (SWA) TRADE AND CULTURAL COUNCIL • INKATHA AND CHIEF M. G. BUTHELEZI • The report says on February 23, Baskin and Sears, a law firm representing the South African government in the United States announced that it was cancelling its $500 000 contract with the apartheid regime; the announcement was made by Phillip Baskin, the senior partner of the firm, after the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) produced United States Justice Department records showing Baskin...
Contents: THE DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT IN THE US • GOVERNMENT SPONSORED TRIPS • REGISTERED LOBBYISTS • BASKIN AND SEARS • SMATHERS, SYMINGTON, AND HERLONG • KIMBERLEY CAMERON HALLAMORE • SOUTH AFRICA FOUNDATION • US-NAMIBIA (SWA) TRADE AND CULTURAL COUNCIL • INKATHA AND CHIEF M. G. BUTHELEZI • The report says on February 23, Baskin and Sears, a law firm representing the South African government in the United States announced that it was cancelling its $500 000 contract with the apartheid regime; the announcement was made by Phillip Baskin, the senior partner of the firm, after the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) produced United States Justice Department records showing Baskin and Sears had been hired for propaganda purposes; ACOA made public information that a number of leading politicians, including New York City's Mayor Edward Koch and Democratic presidential frontrunner, former Vice President Walter Mondale, had received funds from a registered agent of the South African government; when Pittsburgh's Tam Flaherty learned of the South African contract, he demanded that his city cancel its dealings with Baskin and Sears; this led to the decision about the cancelling of the apartheid contract by the law firm. The report says in March 1980, the divestment movement got a big boost when Nebraska's Senator Ernest Chambers introduced a resolution calling on the Nebraska Investment Council to review the list of corporations and banks in which state funds were invested and remove from the list those companies investing in South Africa; the resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority. The report says in three states, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan, and major cities such as Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, public funds were withdrawn from corporations dealing with South Africa and put into alternative holdings which were prudent as required by law and in some cases even more profitable; this year more bills are pending around the country, making divestment the biggest threat to apartheid in the United States. The report says two major newspapers, the now defunct Washington Star and the Sacramento Union, were to be purchased with South African government funds; the press referred to the scandal as Muldergate after Connie Mulder, Minister of Information; Mulder was forced to resign together with Prime Minister John Vorster, and Eschel Rhoodie, Secretary for Information, who was convicted for stealing same of the propaganda money. The report says the reason South Africa has gone to such expensive lengths to win favor in America is because of its economic vulnerability; any significant cut in foreign investment will have a devastating effect on apartheid. The report says South Africa has four consulate offices in New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles; in addition, there are twelve honorary consulate offices; among the things that these offices do is try to spread apartheid propaganda. The report discusses the Rand Daily Mail, a propaganda scandal, the Department of Information, Tom Vosloo, Die Beeld, John Sears, government paid and sponsored trips, legislators from states debating divestment legislation, Senator George Smathers, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Wisconsin state legislators, Representative Richard Matty, Representative Robert Behnk, Illinois state senators, Senator Roger Keats, the Nebraska State Retirement Systems Committee, a bill calling for the divestment of Nebraska pension funds, Senator John DeCamp, Senator Nick Horn, Senator Bill Raggio, Senator Joe Neal, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), Chief Information Counsellor Carl Noffke, Governor Jerry Brown, Gert J. Grobler, Michigan legislators, Piet J. Schabort, foreign policy, the Soviet Union, industrial minerals, strategic minerals, Nebraska Senator Steve Fowler, Manus Le Roux, Piet J. Schabor, Senator Ernest Chambers, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Chester Crocker, the Export-Import Administration Act, trade, the international arms embargo, Congressman Stanford Parris, George Smathers, James Symington, Sydney Herlong, Stephen Riley, US companies which invest in South Africa, Ford, General Motors (GM), General Electric (GE), Mobil Oil, Congressman Stewart McKinney, Combustion Engineering, Dave Blair, Bethlehem Steel, Jack Reed, Westinghouse, William Thompson of Lear Siegle, a foreign agent, South Africa Digest, John Chettle, Marion Smoak, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, President Reagan, Chris G. Badenhorst, KwaZulu, Albert Blaustein, and Dr. Lorna Hahn.
