Mandela Visit Spurs Action on Anti-Apartheid Policy

Largely ignored for the past nine months, a proposal to toughen Los Angeles’ anti-apartheid policy was abruptly resuscitated Monday as part of a plan to push it through the City Council on Friday morning, just hours before South African activist Nelson Mandela is to address the body.

The Council’s Governmental Efficiency Committee approved the measure in a 2-0 vote Monday during a brief meeting and sent it on to the Rules and Elections Committee, where it is expected to be approved today.

The proposal calls for an amendment to the City Charter that would ban virtually all city contracts with firms that do business with South Africa.

An ordinance approved in 1986 imposed a partial ban that applied largely to contracts of $25,000 or less--about 10% of the total contracts granted by the city. The city awards about $296 million in contracts each year, but only $27 million worth fall under the current ordinance. The 1986 ordinance has been amended twice to close loopholes.

But the broader proposal has languished in the Governmental Efficiency Committee since Sept. 19, when council members Joan Milke Flores and Robert Farrell introduced it.

Council members displayed a surge of interest in the matter when Mandela was released from prison on Feb. 11, but it was not placed on the committee’s agenda until late last week, following reporters’ inquiries about its status.

At a news conference Monday morning, Councilman Michael Woo, who heads the committee, said the press of other business had prevented the committee from dealing with the anti-apartheid policy until now. Woo said he supports the measure.

“I think that the way the timing works out is just right,” Woo said. “I think it’s important that we will be making a statement not only to Mr. Mandela, but also to the world, that the city of Los Angeles is taking this time to now make this stronger move against apartheid.”

Flores, who joined Woo at the news conference, said Mandela’s release from prison should not be seen as cause to reduce the economic pressure on the South African government. The toughened sanctions will give “a lot of encouragement to the anti-apartheid movement for years to come,” she said.

Even if the council now moves quickly, it will be months before the measure takes effect; it must be placed on the ballot for voter approval in November or next April.

Mandela, 71, served 27 years of a life sentence in a South African prison for founding that nation’s African National Congress guerrilla campaign against the white minority government.

He and his wife, Winnie, are scheduled to visit Los Angeles on Friday as part of a worldwide trip that already has taken them to Europe and Canada. Their 12-day, eight-city visit to the United States has been described by ANC leaders as a mission to thank Americans for their support and to encourage them to pressure their leaders to keep up economic sanctions until all vestiges of apartheid have vanished.

Los Angeles officials said Monday that the proposed charter amendment would affect some of the country’s largest firms, including IBM, General Motors, Xerox and General Electric, all of which hold contracts with the city.

Although the companies have sold their South African subsidiaries, all four still have distribution or licensing agreements in South Africa, a situation that would make them ineligible to bid on contracts under the proposed measure.

Passage of the 1986 ordinance persuaded a number of firms, including Ashland Oil, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. to completely divest their South African interests in order to do business with Los Angeles, according to George Wolfberg of the city administrative office.

A last-minute scramble to bolster a local sanctions ordinance also is under way in the Bay Area, where Mandela is expected to spend his final hours on U.S. soil in a stopover on Saturday. San Francisco Supervisor Willie Kennedy on Thursday is expected to propose strengthening the city’s divestment rules, already considered among the strictest in the nation. A spokeswoman said Kennedy will pitch amendments to the 1985 law that would bar the city from leasing property to or making other contracts with firms linked to South Africa.

Under the plan, companies could not do business with the city if they own a 5% or greater interest in any firm operating in South Africa. That is the current city standard, but would be formally adopted under the amendment, the supervisor’s spokeswoman said.