South Africa

In the field of action against apartheid, the main thrust of the anti-apartheid movement at the present time is towards the severance of trade and other economic relations with the white minority regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia. Late last year, campaigns were mounted, under the guidance of NZUSA and the National Anti-Apartheid Committee to encourage two insurance companies, NZI and South British, to withdraw their operations from Southern Africa. With the limited numbers of shares which were owned by the campaigners, or for which they could obtain proxies, it was not possible to get the appropriate motions passed at the Annual General Meetings, but the issues were at least raised, and the general educational programme did have some impact.

The next step in the campaigns against these two insurance companies is for the anti-apartheid campaigners to get themselves organised so that they are able to call general meetings of the companies virtually whenever they wish to. The necessary conditions, in terms of the articles of association of the companies, for this to be possible, is to be able to get together either 100 shareholders, or else 10% of the share capital. To make things more difficult in this respect, the insurance companies have made rules whereby they can refuse to accept share transfers where fewer than 50 shares are involved. So what is needed now are people who are able to buy such parcels of shares in these companies; at current prices, 50 shares in NZI or South British would cost about $170. If you have such a sum of money sitting unused in a savings account, here is an excellent opportunity to put it to good use. But when you do buy shares in one of these companies, or if you have some at present which you can use, please inform the International Affairs Officer, Vivienne Zethoven, or else contact the International Vice President of NZUSA, Alick Shaw.

For future action on the economic front against South Africa, investigations are being made into other companies which carry on trading relations with South Africa. It is very likely that one or more of the other companies which trade with South Africa will be selected for a campaign similar to those being waged against South British and NZI. But there are other organisations which are also involved in trading relations with South Africa — for example, the Dairy Board, and the International Wool Secretariat. All of these would make potentia targets for trade campaigns, but further information will probably be available in the near future.