San Diego Supervisors Hope to Cut South Africa Ties
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to urge the county’s retirement system board to withdraw more than $80 million invested with firms doing business in South Africa.
The board approved without discussion a proposal that Supervisor Leon Williams, chairman of the board and its only black member, said he hoped will help overturn a system “more oppressive” than the British government’s rule over the American colonies before the American Revolution.
Williams’ anti-apartheid program is to be implemented after study by the county’s top administrator and the Board of Retirement, but reaction Tuesday indicated that it may have little effect on the county’s investment portfolio.
County officials say that because the Board of Retirement is an autonomous body, it need not answer to the supervisors.
The county’s pension fund totals $516 million, $80.7 million of which is invested in 40 corporations that do business in South Africa, county Treasurer James Jones said.
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