[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 40 (Thursday, April 14, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 REPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICAN DIVESTMENT LAW

 Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, in New Jersey this week, 
legislation repealing New Jersey's historic South African divestment 
law was signed into law.
  South African now stands in the crossfire of change and opportunity 
as a new nation, one nation for all people. Breaking down the racist 
apartheid regime of the past has been a long and difficult task for the 
people of South Africa. I believe economic sanctions were the one tool 
that had the effect of influencing a country to live up to its 
responsibility to all of its citizens. The victory is for those who 
supported the sanctions which made the movement toward democracy 
possible.
  New Jersey and America must never be afraid to use its economic power 
to promote justice and freedom. That is why I am so pleased that Willie 
Brown led the charge in the New Jersey State legislature many years ago 
to write the law requiring divestment. It is also why, in the Senate, I 
cosponsored and supported Federal legislation to impose tough sanctions 
against South Africa as one way to influence the end of abuses under 
the apartheid system.
  In my own visit to South Africa many years ago, I witnessed first-
hand, the injustice and oppression of the apartheid system. As I walked 
the streets of Soweto, I saw people living in squalor, barred by law 
from having equal educational or professional opportunity. Those that 
protested were imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
  Now, as we look to investment again in South Africa, we must look to 
economic programs which will have a meaningful impact on education, 
health, and business development in the townships. For the first time, 
blacks will vote and ensure their part in crafting that agenda.
  World attention has recently been drawn to the fighting that has 
erupted between the Zulu Nation and the supporters of the ANC. These 
incidents raise the troubling prospect that violence may stand as an 
obstacle to democratic reform in a country desperate to embrace that 
very theme. Violence must not derail this historic process. The people 
of South Africa have waited too long for the apartheid regime to come 
crumbling down. The United States must play a constructive role in 
promoting and facilitating the move to democracy and work to ensure 
that South Africa has the economic ability to make the transition to 
democracy.
  Mr. President, I am proud that Assemblyman Brown led the fight to 
focus New Jersey's attention on the plight of South Africans, without 
apology and with a steely resolve. He made New Jerseyans understand 
that we could not support a system which mandated that a majority of 
its citizenry had no voice in government.

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