Government was on Sunday dismissive of Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s support for cases brought before US courts by apartheid victims.
Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo referred queries to government chief spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe, who told the Sunday Independent Tutu should first have discussed his concerns with the state.
”If the archbishop had sat down with the Minister of Justice (Peneull Maduna) to discuss the issue, he would have had a clearer understanding of the government’s position on the litigation in the US,” Netshitenzhe said.
”This is that not settling the matter (of apartheid victims) inside South Africa has profound implications for the future of the country, for instance for the assessment of the country risk profile, and for investment and job creation.”
The Sunday Independent reported that Tutu was urging a US court to go ahead with the case in an eight-page affidavit.
In the document, Tutu, a Nobel laureate and former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) voiced his frustration with the stance taken by the government of President Thabo Mbeki.
Tutu’s statement to the New York District Court, where the reparation claims have been lodged against major international companies — which claimants said did business with the white minority regime — ”pulls no punches”, the paper said.
It added the government’s ”assertion that adjudication of these lawsuits would be at odds with the TRC, or otherwise undermine reconciliation in South Africa, is a non-sequitur”.
”To the contrary,” Tutu continued, ”the obtaining of compensation for victims of apartheid, supplement the very modest amount per victim to be awarded as reparation under the TRC process, could promote reconciliation.”
This would be done ”by addressing the needs of those apartheid victims dissatisfied with the small monetary value of TRC reparations,” Tutu said.
New York District Court judge John Sprizzo heard arguments in November from both claimants and defendants, indicating he would hand down judgement whether the lawsuits should go ahead by the middle of this month.
The list of companies accused includes US banking giants Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS, German companies Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, French banks Credit Lyonnais and IndoSuez, as well as industrial groups such as IBM, DaimlerChrysler, Novartis and ExxonMobil.
The case is seen as crucial for four separate lawsuits launched against multinational banks and companies which allegedly supported the apartheid state during the 1980s in contravention of UN sanctions.
Maduna asked the court in July last year to dismiss the suits.
Mbeki has in the past condemned the move, arguing that many of the companies cited were now assisting in South Africa’s development. – Sapa