South Africa

Abstract

Presently, the most pressing and spectacular issues of multinational corporate responsibility concern their role in South Africa. In the fall of 1986, several major US corporations began to withdraw from their South African operations. Later in the fall and in the winter of 1987, the trickle turned into a flood. By the spring of 1987, most major corporations had withdrawn.¹ Some enterprises announced reasons for departure which mentioned only South Africa’s deteriorating business climate and their own diminishing profitability. Others explicitly stated that their motive for departure was moral revulsion over the intractable racism of the ruling class.² All were under substantial public and political pressure to leave.