79-01-B8

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South Africa

Transcript While activisrn on our college campuses today bears no resemblance to the stormy rioting of the '60's and early '70's, there is one cause that has stirred emotional ferment among our students. College and university trustees and regents on a number of campuses have faced demonstrators demanding that the school sell any stocks it may own in companies doing business with South Africa. A number of corporations have received resolutions from some stockholders calling on them to close down their branches in that country. The reason, of course, apartheid, and the protesters insist the corporations are supporting injustice and exploitations of the black majority by maintaining operations there. I've pointed out on a number or these broadcasts that we all find apartheid repugnant. I've also pointed out that South Africa's problem is quite a bit more complicated than our own struggle with bigotry and prejudice. Now comes a voice from South Africa itself calling on the protestors to cease and desist. The most popular leader of South Africa's blacks, the elected chief minister of the Zulu homeland, founder and chairman of the National Cultural Liberation Movement, wikipedia:Mangosuthu_Buthelezi Gatsha Buthelezi, pleads with United States firms not to stop doing business in his country. Listen to some of his statements. "The uninformed liberals abroad who would like to see a violent confrontation in my country are working for the very thing that everybody here wants to avoid. Our need is for peaceful change, and foreign investment is one of the best agents of that change." Buthelizi then goes on to say that foreign investment creates jobs and brings money to blacks who make up more than 70 percent of industrial labor. He also says the skills the workers are taught are those they'll need if they are to take their rightful place in South Africa. He had few kind words for those visitors to his country who think they can understand Africa by spending a few days in Johannesburg . He calls upon them to cane to Zulu land and learn of, "the remarkable gains we have made in the last few years." Buthelizi speaks in warmest praise of American employers in his country. He cites their providing of housing for employees, eliminating discrimination in eating facilities, loans for housing and educational funding. As a result of this and to remain competitive in the labor market local employers have had to adopt the American pay scales and benefits in a number of cases. This black leader with unquestioned credentials as a respected leader of his people says: "I challenge anyone to prove that the black people themselves are against American Investment."		Details Batch Number 79-01-B8 Production Date 01/??/1979 Book/Page RihoH-189 Audio Youtube? No
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