t~ American Committee On Africa ~:, / 198 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10038/ (212) 962-1210 I Cable AMCOMMAF . ' : ' j:1L· J

South African Propaganda in the by Dumisani s. Kumalo

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 '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.

Details of the Baskin and Sears submission to the Justice

Department made the nature of their responsibilities very clear.

They were hired:

' (i) to lobby, represent, advise and assist in the promotion

Executive Director: ie>nni!Pr D,1\ '': As!KlCiate Director: P,1u: I'''"; Research: C.1:: Hn'.e\; Projects: Dur'11,,1n, l<.:un~.l'" 1 literature: R:r·hard Kn:~n: $• of the political, economic and cultural objectives of the South African government in the US; (ii) to improve the image of the South African government in the United States in order to strengthen the longstanding friendship between the two countries; (iii) to promote South African exports to the United States, to promote American investments in and to assist the South African government in obtaining loans in the US; (iv) to assist in arranging contacts with United States government officials, members of Congress, and other opinion makers in the us; (v) to advise and counsel the South African government on matters of US foreign policy and domestic policy which could affect US-South Africa relations;

(vi) to establish, assist and advise US bodies and organizations which have as their objectives the promotion of better US-South African relationships; (vii) to perform such other legal services as deemed necessary, appropriate and practicable; and (viii) to be available to assist the South African Ambassador in Washington with any and all of his responsibilities. John Sears, who was Ronald Reagan's campaign manager in

1980, has already announced that a new company will be formed to represent South Africa. This kind of maneuvering is typical of those who represent and support apartheid. All across the country, south Africa has its own government representatives and

2 hired agents to lobby for its apartheid cause. The major focus of their work has been to fight the divestment movement which has united Americans of all races and political persuasions, thereby mounting the most formidable opposition South Africa has ever faced in the US. THE DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT IN THE US 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. On April 11, 1980, the Rand Daily Mail, a Johannesburg newspaper underscored the importance of the Nebraska action and warned in an editorial: "The South African divestment vote by Nebraska is ominous. As we reported yesterday, not only is it the first time an individual state has taken such action, but Nebraska is mid western and conservative. Its vote could well set a bandwagon rolling with incalculable consequences." At the end of 1983, twenty-five states and several cities had either passed or were considering legislation even more binding than the Nebraska resolution. 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 same cases even more profitable. This year more bills are pending around the country, making divestment the biggest threat to apartheid in the United

3 States. The Nebraska bill came at a time South Africa was embroiled in a propaganda scandal. The Department of Information had spent more than $100-million in the United States, buying influence. 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.

Since then, South Africa has launched a new propaganda strategy. Instead of spending millions in the US to convince Americans that apartheid is just, the regime is selecting

influential personalities, especially elected officials and entertainers, and inviting them on government financed trips to visit South Africa. Such trips have increased since President Reagan came into office and introduced a policy of "constructive engagement" which supports apartheid. 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. On January 20, 1983, Tom Vosloo, editor of the influential pro-government newspaper, Die Beeld, warned about the dangers of divestment in an editorial: "The pinpricks and irritations to Americans seeking new fields for investments are

an itch which must not be allowed to become a nasty sore. If the State finds it necessary to make secret funds available for this purpose, they have my support as taxpayer." The fact that South Africa is spending secret money for propaganda purposes is not in dispute; the question, which can't be answered, is how much? Nevertheless, what is most fascinating is the increase in overt spending which ACOA has documented from reports filed with the US Department of Justice by registered apartheid agents and from letters written by the South African consular officials and from interviews around the country. Basically the South African apartheid strategy is to divide the dissemination of propaganda into three categories: (i) Organizing government paid and sponsored trips to South Africa for legislators from states debating divestment legislation; (ii) using South African consular officials to lobby personally or by writing letters; and (iii) Employing registered lobbyists and consultants such as John Sears, Ronald Reagan's former presidential campaign manager and former u.s. Senator George Smathers who was one of the main opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. GOVERNMENT SPONSORED TRIPS

(i) On March 13, 1981, five Wisconsin state legislators went to South Africa. They included State Representative Richard Matty (Republican-Crivitz). On his return, Representative Matty told the legislature that south Africa had segregated beaches because "blacks aren't intelligent enough and don't know how to clean after their own mess." When Rep. Matty was criticized for making a blatantly racist remark, he refused to apologize. Rep. Robert Behnke, who went on the same trip, issued a statement

5 contradicting Rep. Matty and also criticizing apartheid. Rep. Behnke said that Rep. Matty based his comments about beaches on "hearsay." (ii) On February 15 1983, three Illinois state senators and their wives went on the trip. Senator Roger Keats (Republican-Glencoe) came back singing the praises of apartheid.

On March 10, he told the ~vilmette Life: "Before I went, I couldn't tell the difference between blacks, coloreds, whites and Indians. But I learned, for it makes a difference in society." Senator Keats added that whites, coloreds and Indians worked on

"punctuality," but "blacks work on the idea of eventuality. Its a warm and pleasant county (sic) , they take their time. It makes the Mexicans look efficient."

(iii) On September 2, 1983, five Nebraska senators also visited. The local press criticized the trip because the Nebraska State Retirement Systems Committee had recently voted for passage of a bill calling for the divestment of Nebraska pension funds from banks and corporations dealing with South Africa. Senator John DeCamp, who went on the trip came back and urged Nebraska to invest more money "to alleviate· the iniquitous system of

apartheid." He added: "Instead of taking out $10-million, put in $100-million." He claimed that with expansion, there would not be enough whites to fill the.positions created and the industry would train blacks for those jobs. (iv) In September 1983, two Nevada legislators, Senator Nick

Horn and Senator Bill Raggio spent 16 days in South Africa. On November 6, 1983, Ned Day, a columnist on the Las Vegas Review

6 Journal, commented: "Horn is a nice enough guy, a powerful state senator (D-Las Vegas) and a respected educator who works as an administrator at the community college. "He and State Senator Bill Raggio spent 16 days in South Africa, free-loading on and hobnobbing with the lilly-white

industrial and political elites of that country. "And now he says that a proposed state law that would discourage Nevada businesses from doing business in South Africa would be, in his words, 'suicidal for blacks.' "That law was proposed by Senator Joe Neal in the last meeting of the Legislature. It lost by only three votes, a development that apparently alerted the South African officials, who now are moving_ smartly to make sure it doesn't come up again. "The South Africans apparently understand how the Nevada Legislature works, how you get things done. They simply invited

a couple of powerful lawmakers to take a freebie "fact-finding" trip, they wined them, dined them and presto, policy is made." LOBBYING BY SOUTH AFRICAN CONSULAR OFFICIALS 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.

(i) On July 17, 1977, when the california Public Employees Retirement System was considering divesting more than $2-billion invested in banks and corporations dealing with South Africa, Carl Noffke, Chief Information Counsellor for the South African Embassy in washington DC, wrote an 18-page letter to Governor Jerry Brown claiming among other things that "blacks and whites

7 enjoy more personal freedom in South Africa than anywhere else on the continent of Africa."

(ii) On May 27, 1982, Gert J. Grobler, South African Consul­ general in Chicago, sent a 12-page letter to Michigan legislators considering divestment legislation affecting public universities. He warned them to "carefully calculate the cost these punitive measures will have on the educational institutions in Michigan as well as on the Michigan economy." '!he letter continued to analyze

Michigan 1 s economy problems and boldly stated: "I am aware of the fact that the State of Michigan has over the last year or two implemented substantial financial cuts to Michigan edUcational institutions." Grobler talked about the "legal ramifications of this bill" and attached a memorandum addressing the "economic, legal and fiduciary ramifications of divestment." '!he first issue addressed by the memorandum was the role of the university trustees as legal guardians of the endownent. "The legal restriction is that Trustees must invest as any prudent person would managing funds over which they have guardianship. This requirement forces Trustees to move with great caution in making decisions of the investment of endownent funds." The Michigan legislature ignored Grobler's custom-made arguments and passed the divestment bill anyway. (iii) In January I983, Piet J. Schabort, vice-Counsellor for Information in the Chicago Consulate, circulated a letter in Illinois, arguing that divestment would hurt blacks. Schabort's hope, and that of the apartheid regime, was that Americans would be reluctant to do anything to hurt black South Africans further

8 and therefore would not support divestment legislation or even ask what effect divestment would have on whites and their government in South Africa. Schabort added a new angle to the propaganda letters from the South African government. He wrote: "The dominant theme of Mr Reagan's foreign policy is that the us should be seen to be strong, particularly vis-a-vis the soviet Union. An essential factor to any posture of strength is the assured availability of key industrial minerals. With the US and its allies in a possible collision course with the Soviet Union over access to strategic minerals, southern Africa has become the Persian Gulf of minerals." In other words, Schabort was urging Americans to continue to support his apartheid regime because if they didn't, they could loose strategic minerals that South Africa has to what the letter called "hostile hands." Not even the South African government can produce any proof, that black people want to be free so that they could put minerals into "hostile hands."

(iv) On February 7, 1983, Schabort sent yet another 24-page letter to Nebraska Senator Steve Fowler. This time the letter was in a question-and-answer format and it stressed that "actions promoting disinvestment from South Africa not only have undeniable legal and fiduciary ramifications, but would also have a negative economic impact on Nebraska."

(v) On April 7,1983, Manus Le Roux, Counsellor for Information at the South African Consulate in Beverley Hills, california, visited Portland, Oregon, a city that was debating divestment legislation and told the press that such an action was

''misguided and unfortunate." Mr Le Roux said he resented being

0 told that his government practiced racism. He added: "I mean no disrespect by this, but we have to get some people from the Stone Age, literally, to the nuclear age." The Portland City Council passed the resolution bill by an overwhelming majority.

(vi) On August 22, 1983, Piet J. Schabort, Vice-Consul for Information at the South African Consulate in Chicago, went to

Nebraska to brief a group of senators that was about to visit South Africa. Senator Ernest Chambers, who was not invited to go on the junket, challenged Schabort about apartheid and the trip. According to the Associated Press, Schabort told Senator

Chambers, who is black, that the difference between South Africa and the US was that there were 200 million white Americans trying to "uplift" about 26 million blacks, as well as other minorities. Schabort said South Africa had 26 million blacks with 4.5 million whites trying to "uplift" them. "Then you are saying white people are superior?" asked Chambers. "Of course not, but I am saying that the technology is superior, there are cultural and language differences that make the problems more difficult," said Schabort.

REGISTERED LOBBYISTS South Africa employs nine lobbying companies that are

registered with the US Department of Justice. By law, any person who acts as an agent for a foreign government has to report

periodically to the Justice Department. According to files, the highest paid lobbyist in the US for South Africa is John Sears,who managed Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980. BASKIN AND SEARS John Sears became a South African agent on January 6, 1981, just as Ronald Reagan entered the White House. He is paid $500,000 per year by Pretoria. According to the contract filed with the Justice Department, Sears was hired to "improve the image of South Africa." Here are some of the ways in which Sears has tried to sell apartheid in America. (i) He advised the South African government on legal issues raised by divestment legislation that is being debated across the us.

(ii) On February 11, 1982, he arranged for letters to be sent to Malcolm Baldridge, Secretary of Commerce, Alexander Haig, Secretary of State, and Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of

State for Africa, calling for the relaxation of the Export-Import Administration Act which restricts trade and the supply of material prohibited under the international arms embargo of South Africa. The restrictions were later relaxed.

(iii) In June 1982, he submitted a memorandum dealing with the problems encountered in Pittsburgh by the South African Consul who was opening offices in that city. Pittsburgh citizens staged protests against the opening of an apartheid office in their city. At the same time that this protest was going on, Sears, through his Pittsburgh office, made political contributions totaling over $12,000 to Pittsburgh city councillors, state representatives and a local judge, all of whom were running for office that same year.

(iv) Sears took a group of visiting South African

11 parliamentarians to visit the field campaign headquarters of Virginia's Congressman Stanford Parris. Parris was an opponent of divestment legislation adopted by the District of Columbia. He later voted against the bill in Congress.

SMATHERS, SYMINGTON, AND HERLONG This firm was hired on April 1, 1980, because of its links to the Democratic Party and is paid $300,000 per year. Its three partners are former Senator George Smathers, D-Fla., former Representative James Symington D-Mo., and former Representative Sydney Herlong, D-Fla. Smathers was one of the main opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In his opposing arguments against the Civil Rights Act, Smathers pushed for Americans to adhere to segregation. Stephen Riley, another partner of this firm, travels to different states such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Michigan, lobbying against divestment legislation, and sometimes appearing with US companies which invest in South Africa such as Ford, General Motors, General Electric and Mobil. George Smathers and James Symington also make political contributions of several hundred dollars each to a variety of members of Congress. KIMBERLEY CAMERON HALLAMORE Brand Fourie, the South African Ambassador to the us, hired Hallamore on April 1, 1980, for "representational services" and for a "retainer fee" of $3 500 per month. According to a u.s. Justice Department report among the representations that Hallamore carried out for Fourie were: (i) In November 1981, "verbally informed" Congressman Stewart McKinney of Connecticut that one of his constituent

12 companies, Combustion Engineering, would receive "an $800-million contract for an electric generation plant" to be built in South

Africa. At the time a divestment bill was pending before the Connecticut state legislature.

(ii) During the same month, Hallamore "ran into" Dave Blair of Bethlehem Steel and Jack Reed of Westinghouse at a luncheon and told them "their companies would probably want to know about a divestment bill presented in the Maryland legislature." He later met with William 'Ihompson of Lear Siegler, an aerospace and electronics conglomerate, and made "the same statement about a divestment bill pending in the Michigan legislature."

SOUTH AFRICA FOUNDATION The South Africa Foundation claims it is a "private organization Whose purpose is to promote international understanding of South Africa." But, the Foundation is also registered with the US Justice Department as a foreign agent. The

Foundation organizes business forums in the US and South Africa where members of the government are invited to speak According to the May 6, 1983, South Africa Digest, (a government owned and published magazine) John Chettle, US Director of the Foundation, said state and city laws demanding divestment of public funds

from US companies trading with South Africa could be unconstitutional. He said these laws would be challenged in court and it is possible they will be thrown out. Chettle said these laws violated the US Constitution on three counts: (i) the supremacy clause which gives the federal government the exclusive

right to conduct foreign policy; (ii) the commerce clause which

13 empowers the federal government to regulate inter-state and foreign commerce; and (iii) the 14th Amendment which prevents discrimination against individuals and companies.

US-NAMIDIA (SWA) TRADE AND CULTURAL COUNCIL

This outfit registered on September 2, 1980. It represents the South African government-created regime in Namibia. Namibia has been illegally occupied by South Africa for decades. On

October 5, 1983, Marion Smoak, who runs the Council, wrote a letter to university presidents around the US claiming: "Divesbnent punishes American investors and the working people of Namibia, without achieving any compensation benefits. In addition, there is no longer any need for disinvesbnent in

Namibia since the reason for this move, apartheid, no longer exists in the country." At the time Smoak was making these claims, 100,000 South . African troops were continuing their illegal occupation of Namibia. Between March 1981 and March I983, he earned $1.2 million.

INKATHA AND OiiEF M. G. BUTHELEZI

As the divestment pressure is increasing in the US, the South African government has turned to so-called ''black leaders" such as Chief Gatsha Buthelezi to act in its defense. When US legislators visit South Africa, the government arranges for them to meet with Buthelezi who argues the case against divestment.

Buthelezi, is billed by South Africa as "head of the five­ million strong Zulu nation" despite the fact less than 100 000

Zulus voted for him. Calling Buthelezi "head of the Zulus" would be analogous to the claim that President Reagan is "Chief of the 50 million strong Irish tribe in America." In fact, Chris G.

14 Badenhorst, Counsellor for Information at the South African Embassy in Washington, explained Buthelezi' s role better in a memorandum about the national referendum of November 2, 1983, when he wrote: "Consider, for example, the case of Chief Gatsha Buthelezi of KwaZulu. He owes his position in the constitutional sense to structures created by the South African Government ••• " Nevertheless, Buthelezi has two personal representatives in the us, Albert Blaustein, a law professor at , New Jersey, and Dr Lorna Hahn of Washington DC. Blaustein registered as an agent on August 25, I978. He reports that he acts as a "legal counsel" and also arranges Buthelezi's itinerary when he visits the us. Blaustein does not state how much he has been paid by Buthelezi. Dr Hahn claims she also arranges Buthelezi's schedule when he or his cohorts visit the US and Hahn admits to receiving $8,000 to write and produce a pamphlet on Buthelezi's political arm titled "Introducing Inkatha." She also received $1150 for "arranging appointments." The above propaganda activities relate to the issue of divestment only. They don't include the names of other registered agents like Image Industries·that distribute propaganda to high schools across the country. Also excluded is the company that spends more than $1-million per month promoting Krugerrands, the South African gold coin. The focus her is the apartheid regime's attack on the divestment movement because this is the most formidable challenge South Africa has faced in a long time.

(Dumisani s. Kumalo, former South African journalist, is Projects Director for the American Committee on Africa.)

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