( O I. L 1 C, K I. I F t
(Continued from page 11)
Africa. But as Knight sees matters, IBM's record is beside the
point. "The problem is not education or how a company treats its
workers in a system,” Knight argues. The problem, he insists, is
the system itself.
That view may be shared to some extent by many U.S. execu
tives themselves. It is difficult for any American to spend
much time in South Africa without developing an intense
repugnance for its racial and economic injustice—a feeling from
which no civilized person can be immune. Some, likeGM’s White,
are urging that the system be changed to avert real tragedy Even
"a 5 percent growth rate won’t be sufficient to provide the required
housing, educational institutions and jobs,” he warned recently.
"Foreign investment is crucial to economic growth, but apartheid
makes it increasingly difficult for foreign companies to continue
operations in South Africa.” By contrast, some radical students
believe the resulting economic chaos is devoutly to be wished, since
it might increase repression to the flashpoint, and ignite a full
scale revolt.
Perhaps fortunately for all South Africans, campus activism by
itself is unlikely to have such impact To date, only 42 colleges have
fully divested or vowed to fully divest their South African portfo
lios (pa^e 18). Another 42 have opted for partial divestiture, gener
ally of companies that do not comply with the Sullivan principles
(During 1985, 28 US. companies pulled out of South Africa
entirely.)
In some instances, trustees have resisted the protesters in the
sincere belief that American business really can be a beneficial
force. Others resent the notion of students intruding into what
they regard as very much a business matter—purticularly since,
according to Robert B Zevin, economist und senior vice president
at U S. Trust Co., "The companies whose securities are being
divested are more often than not the companies which huve
supplied people to sit on the university's board of trustees " Still
other trustees fear the impact that divestiture may have on
future corporate gifts. 'Tm terrified ubout divesting from Eli
Lilly,” a trustee of Indiana University told the Indiana Duily
Student last fall. “They’ve given us close to 150 million in the lust
10 years ... If I were a corporate executive in one of these
South Africa’s
Defiant Campus
Apartheid is ignored at Cape Town
The university is silhouet
ted against the imposing
slope of Cape Town’s Table
Mountain. Below the sports
fields stretch the neat lawns
of a suburb reserved for whites.
Off in the distance it’s often pos
sible to see smoke curling up
from a Colored (mixed-race)
township on the flatlands,
where residents regularly pro
test apartheid by setting cars
and buildings aflame But all
seems tranquil back on the
steps of Jameson Hall, the cen
tral meeting place at the Uni
versity of Cape Town where
black, white, Colored and Indi
an students gather between
classes. They observe no racial
barriers while they soak up the
sun, swap lecture notes and
talk politics, just as UCT stu
dents have since 1959. In that
infamous year, when the Afri
kaner government forcibly seg
regated South African univer
sities, UCT began its defiant
tradition: apartheid would not
be obeyed, and the doors would
remain open to all races.
Today, despite the iron fist
of Pretoria, UCT is South Afri
ca’s most integrated campus.
About 15 percent of its 12,000
students are from groups classi
fied as non white, about 1,200
are mixed-race, 300 are black
and 250 Indian. Black students
do tend to stick together in
campus politics and in the
lunchroom—as they frequent
ly do in the United States.
Otherwise, students mingle
freely in classes, at charity
events like the annual tray to
boggan down the Jameson
steps, on sports teams and even
in the dorms—in contempt of
the Group Areas Act, which de
crees who may live where
Like the three other "open”
universities—the University of
Witwatersrand, Natal Univer
sity and Rhodes University—
UCT was founded by South Af
ricans of British descent, who
have traditionally tended to be
more liberal than the Dutch
descended Afrikaners.
Clamping town: UCT students
are struggling to make the
racial equality of their cam
pus the rule. Their running
battle with local authorities
heated up last year, when
the white regime declared a
state ofemergencyandclamped
down on protests. UCT stu
dents fought back, lining
both sides of the road that
skirts the campus and bran
• ,, I ... III. in >•!••(< it
Clastlfltt dasMt: Mingling races in a first-year history lecture
dishing antiapartheid banners.
In August police warned the
students to clear out, but the
protesters held their ground.
Then shotgun-toting police ar
rived in two armored trucks,
lobbing tear-gas canisters and
chasing students with hide
whips Dozens of faculty mem
bers and students were arrest
ed, and 12 took their final ex
ams in cells. "White students
had heard about the state of
emergency, while black stu
dents had to live with it,"
says Jonathan Benn, a 21-yeur
old white majoring in political
science. "It was only through
the resistance that white stu
dents began to appreciate the
realities.”
Since South Africa’s elemen
tary and high schools are segre
gated, UCT is many a student's
first exposure to classmates of
other races. Whites usually ar
rive better prepared ucudemi
cally, so the university tries
to help the disadvantaged
catch up, offering free coaching
in English, mathematics and
communication skills. "Th<
whites come from privileged
backgrounds," concedes u 20
yeur-old black science student
named Jaffer (who asked that
his last name not be used)
'Tutting bluck und white stu
dents together makes white
realize that blucks have th<
same abilities It won’t solv<
South Africa’s political prob
lems—but at least it's a start
hapw-fsctlMs: Still, UCT in
many ways continues to reflect
the imperfect world outside the
campus "The majority of whit*
students don’t care about the
oppressed,” says Shureen, 21, a
black social-science major who