African Activist Archive

The press release says Bank of America's announcement that it is stopping all lending activity related to South Africa, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, makes it the first major U.S. bank to publicly refuse to make any new South African loans while the apartheid system remains in place. Bank of America, along with eight other California banks, has been the target of the state-wide $top Banking on Apartheid campaign that began in 1977. Since the Soweto Uprisings in 1976, almost every major black organization as well as the non-racial South African Council of Churches (SACC), the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops Conference and the United Democratic Front (UDF) have demanded that there be no loans to South Africa until apartheid is dismantled and majority rule instituted. The Bank's policy reversal follows the May 20 vote by the Oakland City Council to close the City's multi-million-dollar account with Bank of America because of its refusal to adopt a policy of no new loans to South Africa. The press contact is Miloanne Hecathorn. The press release mentions loans to South Africa's public and private sector as well as trade-related financing, Security Pacific National Bank, and the annual stockholders' meeting.

African Activist Archive

[After nearly a decade of pressure, Bank of America has announced that it is stopping all lending activity related to South Africa.]

PRESS RELEASE

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