South Africa (Hansard, 23 February 1990)

§ Mr. Ridley

We have made clear our view that the steps President de Klerk has taken have transformed the political climate in South Africa. He has opened the way to a peaceful end to apartheid through negotiation. This deserves a constructive response from the international community.

In 1986 European Community Foreign Ministers and, separately, Heads of Government participating at the Commonwealth review meeting agreed to impose a number of measures against South Africa, including a ban on new investment in South Africa. The then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced the implementation in the United Kingdom of the ban on new investment in a written answer to a parliamentary question on 30 October 1986, Vol. 103, column 220. In our case the measure was voluntary.

When imposing the measures European Community Foreign Ministers reaffirmed the urgent need for a genuine national dialogue, across lines of colour, politics and religion. To this end they called on the South African Government to release unconditionally Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, to lift the bans on the African National Congress, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and other political parties. Separately they expressed their wish to see the state of emergency brought to an end.

The steps President de Klerk has taken open the way to such a dialogue. It would be logical, therefore, to respond by lifting the measures imposed at that time.

When the participants in the Commonwealth review meeting in London in 1986 agreed to impose certain measures they referred in their communiqué to the deteriorating situation in South Africa and to a spiralling cycle of violence and counter-violence. They called on the South African Government to initiate a process of dialogue and said that if this call received a positive response and the South African Government took the steps demanded of them, they would review the situation and, if appropriate, rescind the measures. The then 941W Secretary of State for Trade and Industry referred to that undertaking when announcing our ban on new investment in 1986.

Accordingly Her Majesty's Government are now withdrawing the advice on new investment in South Africa which they issued in 1986. It will, as before, be for companies and firms to make their own judgment about whether to invest in South Africa. The Government will no longer discourage them.

Our goal remains the peaceful end of apartheid through negotiations leading to a democratic and non-racial South Africa. We shall continue our efforts to contribute to the rapid achievement of that goal.