Economic sanctions against South Africa during the eighties
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Authors
Louw, Michael Hendrik Sarel
Issue Date
1994-11
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Economic sanctions , Economic impact , Political developments , Divergent political goals , Unacceptable behaviour , Deteriorating economy , Non-escalation of sanctions , Signal sanctions , Major foreign policy objective
Alternative Title
Abstract
Import sanctions were used to a very limited extent against South Africa in the early
sixties and latter half of the seventies to clearly signal the international community's
disapproval of the country's apartheid policy. In the middle eighties South Africa was
further exposed to a two year wave of export and financial sanctions. This was after the
government had already committed itself to move away from apartheid as a policy that
was no longer deemed feasible. All these sanctions were lifted in the early nineties after
the abolition of apartheid but before negotiations for a new constitutional dispensation
had firmly got under way.
Contrary to some popular impressions, the 1985-87 sanctions were also severe1y limited
in scope and nature, with the result that their economic impact was only marginal at
best. They were introduced at a time when the country unexpectedly had to face a
foreign debt crisis and had to drastically adjust the economy downward, not unlike that
experienced by many other developing countries. The severe recession and greater
socio-political unrest that followed did not lead to an escalation of sanctions, but
nevertheless threatened to make large parts of the country ungovernable. The evidence
is that sanctions only played a minor role in bringing about this poor and deteriorating
state of affairs.
The political aims of abolishing apartheid and preparing the way for negotiations was
achieved mainly as a result of certain internal political developments, together with the
political implications of such major other outside developments as the economic collapse
of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Soviet Union.
South Africa's experience with sanctions confirms that as elsewhere their economic
impact as an instrument of foreign policy was invariably exaggerated, whereas their
contribution in explaining the subsequent course of political events was at best uncertain.
Description
Citation
Louw, Michael Hendrik Sarel (1994) Economic sanctions against South Africa during the eighties, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/17247>