| JOHANNESBURG
— Former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu has angered
his government by backing apartheid victims seeking massive reparations
from foreign companies which did business with the former apartheid
regime in South Africa.
And the South African Council of Churches has come out in support
of Tutu, who has submitted an eight-page affidavit to the New
York court which is considering whether the applications for reparations
should be allowed to proceed.
“Placing corporations on notice that they will in future
be held responsible for the effects of their investments in repressive
regimes may well create an incentive for them to channel such
investments into countries with a better human rights record,”
Tutu said in a sworn statement quoted in South Africa’s
Sunday Independent newspaper.
The South African government however opposes the applications
for reparations on the grounds that they could discourage badly-needed
foreign investment, harm reconciliation and impinge on the country’s
sovereignty.
Tutu chaired South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) on the apartheid era following which the South African government
agreed to pay compensation to some victims of apartheid.
In his affidavit to the New York district court judge, John Sprizzo,
who is hearing the case, Tutu denied the applications for reparations
from foreign companies would undermine reconciliation.
“To the contrary, the obtaining of compensation for victims
of apartheid, to supplement the very modest amount per victim
to be awarded as reparations under the TRC process, could promote
reconciliation, by addressing the needs of those apartheid victims
dissatisfied with the small monetary value of TRC reparations,”
said Tutu.
The former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town also rejected the
claim made to the New York court by South African Justice Minister
Penuell Maduna that the reparations action would discourage foreign
investment in post-apartheid South Africa.
“It makes no sense to suppose that suits filed in a foreign
jurisdiction that seek to hold foreign companies accountable for
their collaborations with a prior regime, would discourage foreign
investors from sending capital into that country in the future,”
Tutu noted.
The New York judge is expected to give his ruling on the case
in mid-February.
Joel Netshitenzhe, the South African government’s chief
spokesperson, responding to Tutu, said that the New York case
“has profound implications for the future of the country,
for instance for the assessment of the country risk profile, and
for investment and job creation.” |
