Sullivan Urges U.S. Firms to Quit S. Africa : Says His Fair-Employment Code Has Failed to End Apartheid
The Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, saying his widely used fair-employment principles have failed to bring an end to South Africa’s apartheid, called on nearly 200 American businesses Wednesday to pull out of that nation within nine months.
Sullivan, a Philadelphia Baptist minister whose 10-year-old code of conduct has become the standard for U.S. companies in South Africa, also said he wants the U.S. government to enact an economic embargo against South Africa.
In a telegram to President Reagan, he asked the United States to sever diplomatic relations “until statutory apartheid is ended and blacks have a clear commitment for equal political rights.”
But Sullivan’s impassioned plea at a news conference met with opposition from American businesses and the Reagan Administration, which said the companies’ continued presence in South Africa remains the best hope for social change.
A council composed of 104 chief executive officers of firms that signed the 1977 Sullivan Principles said in a statement that they regret the call for complete divestiture.
The statement said member companies will continue to comply with the principles as long as they do business in South Africa.
“We owe a great debt to Leon Sullivan, but we will now have to carry out the Sullivan Principles without Sullivan,” said Allan Murray, chief executive officer of Mobil Corp. and co-chairman of the U.S. Corporate Council on South Africa.
‘Highest Priority’
Murray said “the highest priority” would be given to corporate actions designed to show South Africa that its interests “will be best served by addressing the country’s social and political problems through negotiation and conciliation rather than repression.”
The council made clear that companies could, on their own, end their South African investments.
“While continuing to oppose the call for wholesale disinvestment as an ineffective means to force the end of apartheid, the council takes no position on the merits of individual company decisions,” its statement said. The council’s other co-chairmen are Reuben Mark of the Colgate Palmolive Co. and W. Michael Blumenthal of Unisys Corp.
At the State Department, spokesman Charles Redman said that while the United States has “enormous respect for Rev. Sullivan and the work he has done,” the Administration opposes his call for U.S. companies to pull out of South Africa.
“We deeply regret his announcement today,” Redman said. “Despite the difficulties on the ground in South Africa, we firmly believe that it is now more important than ever for U.S. firms to stay and work for an end to apartheid.”
Sullivan said he was not backing away from the principles, which he called “a catalyst for change.”
But while many companies have made great strides toward racial equal opportunity, he said that “in spite of these and other efforts, the main pillars of apartheid still remain and blacks are still denied basic human rights in their own country and are denied the right to vote.”
Asked if the principles could go on without him, Sullivan replied, “Well, they kept the Ten Commandments without Moses.”
Sullivan said he agonized over his decision because he was concerned with what would happen to black workers after American firms pull out.
Under Sullivan’s plea, American firms would have until March, 1988, to withdraw from South Africa. Sullivan said he hopes companies will sell their interests to concerns promoting equal opportunity for blacks, and he asked the companies to reconsider relocating to neighboring nations.
The principles, signed by more than 100 of the nearly 200 U.S. companies still active in South Africa, call for integration of corporate facilities, establishment of equal and fair employment practices and an increase in the number of black managers.
More than 100 American companies have sold their South African subsidiaries over the last 18 months.
Sullivan’s plea came just three days after the May 31 deadline he had set for the South African government to end apartheid or face a call for total U.S. divestiture.
“There is no greater moral issue in the world today than apartheid. Somehow this moral issue must be raised before America and the world so the world will deal with it,” he said.
Sullivan compared the apartheid system to fascism in its moral repugnance.
“Like Nazism and fascism, it must be stopped. If the world had stopped Hitler in time, it might have stopped World War II,” he said.
Others Must Cooperate
Sullivan said an economic embargo would be effective only if countries besides the United States also kept their distance from South Africa. He said Congress should consider restraints against any nation that moved to fill a void left by an American embargo.
Sullivan, a preacher with a quick wit and a booming voice, joined the General Motors Corp. board of directors in 1971 and sought immediately to get the company out of South Africa. Instead, he settled for having GM and 11 other companies sign his corporate code of conduct.
