Listening to the silent majority

[39]

Sir Robin Renwick, the British Ambassador to South Africa, displayed a similar thought pattern when he addressed a graduation ceremony at the University of the Witwatersrand.^23. ‘The number one self-defeating

23. I deduce this from a full report on the editorial page of The Sowetan, May 17, 1989

[p. 47]

strategy is isolation,’ said the British envoy. He distinguished between positive activism by the truly oppressed within South Africa, and mindless activism by people and groups overseas, who do not know what they are actually doing, let alone understand the true struggle for liberation in South Africa. The Ambassador gave, as one example, the withholding of books from South Africa by some US publishing houses who were being pressured by uninformed activism in the United States. ‘A university such as this,’ he said, ‘with its proud record of resistance to apartheid, deserves support - not ostracism through some half-baked academic boycott.’ He continued. ‘The apostles of disinvestment go on pressing for Western companies to leave South Africa. I really would be grateful if someone could explain to me how the sale of Mobil Oil's assets here at a bargain price to a South African company, in this case Gencor, can possibly help a single black South African. The Union has expressed distress that it is unable to negotiate with the departing company. Unfortunately, of course, you cannot really negotiate with departing companies. It is only possible to negotiate effectively with companies that stay.’