In protest of the system of apartheid, economic sanctions against South Africa had been advocated from the 1960s onwards. However, it was only in the 1980s that the implementation of sanctions would significantly pressurize the apartheid government to end its policy of segregation.
In 1962, the United Nations established their Special Committee against Apartheid, which called for sanctions against South Africa. Britain was not convinced that this would encourage a change of policy in South Africa, and boycotted the committee. By 1979, Margaret Thatcher had become the Prime Minister of Britain and remained steadfast in her disapproval of sanctions against South Africa, despite the fact that western and newly-independent African countries supported the economic isolation of South Africa.
In 1986, disagreements over the sanctions against South Africa took place at a meeting of the Commonwealth. It was Thatcher's opinion that economic sanctions would not achieve the goal of ending the apartheid regime and would lead to the greater suffering of South Africa's black population. Kenneth Kaunda, President of Zambia, along with other Commonwealth leaders, felt that South Africa's government must be forced to change its policy through economic isolation. On 3 August 1986, Kaunda suggested that Thatcher be excluded from talks on South African sanctions.
A later meeting in London resulted in the decision that Commonwealth governments would take an individual decision as far as economic sanctions against South Africa were concerned. A disinvestment campaign in the United States resulted in a significant amount of support for economic sanctions against South Africa. The impact of this disinvestment eventually led to the dismantling of apartheid in the 1990s.
Related:
The Margaret Thatcher Foundation
References:
Disinvestment from South Africa [online] Available at: www.wikipedia.org [Accessed 28 July 2009]
Economic sanctions [online] Available at: encyclopedia.farlex.com [Accessed 28 July 2009]
