Expel S. Africa Consulate, Apartheid Foes Urge

An anti-apartheid group Monday called for the expulsion of the South African consulate in Beverly Hills and announced it is researching an initiative that would require companies in California that do business in that country to divest.

Officials of the American Roundtable, a predominantly black group headed by Bishop H. H. Brookins, said at a news conference they would use legal, political and social means to have the South African consulate removed.

The group plans to introduce the proposal at a Beverly Hills City Council meeting tonight, said spokesman Jules Bagneris.

Officials will argue that the consulate poses a clear and present danger to residents because violence similar to the recent bomb-slaying of Arab leader Alex Odeh in Santa Ana could occur, Bagneris said.

In such a case, he said, the city could be held liable for damages.

Bagneris said the American Roundtable, formed in October 1984, decided to withdraw an initiative that would have established an anti-apartheid policy in California and would have urged Congress to adopt a similar policy.

“We were victorious in educating the public about apartheid so we withdrew the first initiative,” Bagneris said. He claimed the group had collected 200,000 signatures.

“What we discovered in the process of collecting the signatures is Californians want divestment and they want it now,” Bagneris said. “As such, we are forming an exploratory committee of all the anti-apartheid groups in California to research the viability of a divestment initiative for the November 1986 election.”

The initiative, which is still being researched, would compel divestments of holdings in South Africa by the University of California system, state pension funds and financial institutions and companies, Bagneris said.

The UC Regents recently decided to review future investments in South Africa on a case-by-case basis to determine if they should be continued.

“The UC case-by-case evaluation dosen’t go far enough,” Bagneris said. “It won’t lead to the freedom of South Africans. Certainly we should not support a regime that is oppressing the majority of its people.”

In reply to criticism that divestiture would hurt the very people it aims to help, Bagneris said, “South Africans are willing to bear whatever hurt in the short run to achieve freedom in the long run.”