South Africa: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Sullivan Principles

Abstract

By the 1980s, the continued presence of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in South Africa (SA) had become a hotly debated subject and one not without controversy. On one side of the debate were those who favored total disengagement from SA. Proponents of this view believed that the presence of overseas MNCs in SA gave moral legitimacy to the White minority government and created a vested overseas interest in the status quo, which, in turn, increased the desire to see the maintenance and stability of the existing political system. They proposed that economic sanctions, comprehensively applied against SA, would accelerate the dismantling of the racist system of government. On the other side were those who asserted that by liberalizing employment practices in SA, overseas MNCs set a positive example for other employers in the country. This would have the net impact of making everyone, regardless of color, economically well off in the long run. Thus, whereas the pro-investment group seemed to favor a constructive engagement approach to solving the apartheid problem, the prodivestment group believed that application of economic pressure would hasten the elimination of apartheid. Many believe that it was the pressure brought to bear on SA in the late 1980s, rather than a voluntary change of heart by the White