TUESDAY 3.30PM:
DESPITE 55 submissions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from business groupings, TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu said there are nonetheless some glaring absences.
Speaking at the opening of the special commission hearing on business and apartheid, Tutu said no submissions were received from white workers’ organisations, organised agriculture or oil companies. On the content of the submissions, Tutu said: “No one today admits to supporting apartheid.”
Tutu added that businesses operated within the milieu created by government policies, in which they enriched themselves through cheap labour, the pass laws and job reservation for whites. Some businessmen protested against the unjust laws of apartheid, but many acquiesced and co-operated with the government of the day. However, Tutu said the hearing had not been called to pillory or ridicule anyone.
Meanwhile, the SA Chamber of Business said in its submission the apartheid system was an intolerable political, economic and social system that was destined to fail. Presenting its submission to the truth commission’s hearing on the role of the business sector during apartheid, Sacob director-general Raymond Parsons said it was because of the above realisation that his organisation strove to undermine it. “We believed that apartheid was a violation of human rights and was economically unsustainable. The human and economic costs of apartheid were unacceptably high, and it is for that reason that we embarked on a policy of constructive engagement to eradicate it.”
Union federation Cosatu argues that business submissions — suggesting that apartheid obstructed business expansion, and that the chief sin of business was its failure to speak out loudly enough — were “spurious”.
Historical records show that captains of industry, particularly mining, pioneered many of the core features of what later became known as apartheid, says Cosatu. Profit-driven economic growth throughout most of the century coincided with deepening racial oppression. Despite the economic crisis of the last two decades, business had continued to collaborate with the government.
Cosatu said business could not be trusted to fully disclose its role in suppressing black trade unions, paying starvation wages, employing child labour on farms, and making use of prison labour. The pass laws, migrant labour, forced removals and restrictions on labour all benefited business.