Report on Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. (Ronald Reagan's report to Congress) (transcript)

Report on Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pursuant to Section 501 of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (the act), the President [on October 2, 1987] has transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, a report on the extent to which significant progress has been made toward ending the system of apartheid and establishing a nonracial democracy in that country. Included is the President's recommendation on which suggested additional measures, if any, should be imposed on South Africa.

The report concludes that there has not been significant progress toward ending apartheid since October 1986, and that none of the goals outlined in Title I of the act--goals that are shared by the Administration and the Congress--have been fulfilled. Moreover, the South African Government's response to the act over the past year gives little ground for hope that this trend will soon be reversed or that additional measures will produce better results.

In reviewing the 12-month period since the act became law, the report describes a continuing bleak situation for blacks in South Africa who face increased repression, harassment, and--even in the case of a significant number of minors--imprisonment. Press censorship has been intensified, and illegal cross-border raids by South African security forces into neighboring countries have resulted in the loss of innocent lives.

In the economic area, the report points out that sanctions have had minimal impact on interrupting South Africa's external trade because of that country's ability to find substitute markets for its products outside the United States. Where there has been a significant impact, notably in the coal and sugar industries, the loss of export markets in the United States has caused hardship among black workers who are experiencing greater rates of unemployment. Overall, South Africa's economic performance has not been robust due to the poor investment climate, unfavorable international conditions, and droubht in the farming areas. Sanctions have incrementally exacerbated an already existing problem.

The report also takes note of considerable disinvestment by American companies since the beginning of the recent unrest in South Africa. The report points out that the most painful impact of this trend toward disinvestment has been the disappearance of company-funded social, housing, educational, and job training programs designed to improve living standards and career opportunities for black South Africans.

In political terms, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which followed selective measures instituted by Executive order in 1985, sent a strong message of abhorrence of apartheid on the part of the American people. The immediate result, however, was a marked reduction in our ability to persuade the South African Government to act responsibly on human rights issues and to restrain its behavior in the region. Perhaps the single ray of hope during the period under review was the appearance of ferment within the Afrikaner community where there is increasing public discussion of "power sharing." While this and similar terms being discussed are still devoid of quantifiable substance, they may be a precursor to eventual negotiations between the South African Government and the black leadership, a goal which the U.S. Government will be seeking to promote.

Because of the President's conclusion that the economic sanctions embodied in the 1986 act have not been effective in meeting the goals on which the Congress and the Administration agree, and his conviction that additional measures would be counterproductive, the President recommends against the imposition of any additional measures at this time, including those mentioned in Section 501(c) of the act, and …