Monday, March 28, 1988

TORONTO (CUP) -- Five university students are fighting

the South African government’s attempt to block coverage of that country by speaking to students in Ontario and Quebec about their experiences in Southern r Africa. _ Carleton history student Mar-

tha Gordon told students at the | University of Toronto that despite the absence of detailed » news on South Africa, the strug-

. gle against apartheid is getting | more intense.

"Things are broiling down there if you go down in Southern _ Africa," said Gordon. "It doesn’t even look like they’re struggling ' from here, but they are."

. Zimbabwean cooperative | worker Philip Dube said stu- ‘dents should fight to cut all _ diplomatic relations with South African and impose economic . sanctions. Dube said the results of university divestment cam- paigns are mixed since many North American companies | have sold their operations to South African companies who | profit from manufacturing the same product under the same » Name.

Dube said most Canadians

p don’t realize the effectiveness of

_ the South African government’s media black-out.

| "The problem with the people

in the west is that they believe in

what they see. At the present

But SA’s govern- ment attempts to block coverage

problem."

Dube said Canadians can’t see blacks being evicted without notice from their homes and forced to move onto unproduc- tive land. He said many black South Africans live in plastic tents without windows and have no access to clean water.

Gordon said after her visit to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, she hopes to build direct links between youth groups in Canada and front line states. But she said so far student response has not been strong.

"Definitely there’s less publicity and there’s less sup- port for anti-apartheid groups,” said Gordon. "We’re still com- batting places like the embassy and all the slick propaganda that’s coming out.”

Dube said that the South African government often ex- ports their products with origin labels from countries such as Swaziland and Lesotho.

South Africa’s neighbouring states’ decision to cut all trading and diplomatic ties with the apartheid regime has been weakened by South Africa’s at- tempts to destabilize their economies, said Dube.

the Other Press

Students report on SA

on in South Africa itself," he said.

In 1984, the frontline states: Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho, Angola and Swaziland, formed the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) to try to lessen their dependence on South Africa trading and transportation.

Dube said that Mozambique with its non-racial government and Zimbabwe with its "govern- ment of national reconciliation" pose a threat to South Africa be- cause both are examples of ef- fective multi-racial govern- ments.

Gordon plans to visit Brock, Carleton, York, Queen’s univer- sities, as well as the Universities of Toronto and Waterloo, while Dube will travel to Quebec. They are encouraging students to demonstrate on March 21, In- ternational Day Against Racism, in solidarity with South African

UVic covers its Af.

VICTORIA (CUP) -- The University of Victoria plans to give black South Africa activist, Winnie Mandela, an honourary degree even though university officials are unsure if UVic is still investing in companies with ties to the South African regime.

The university has a policy of giving honourary degrees only if the recipient claims it in person. But Mandela, whose husband Nelson is the Jailed leader of the African National Congress, is not permitted to leave her Soweto township.

The irony came to light when two student Board of Governors repre- sentatives, Ron Dickson and Dave Tindall, made a motion at a recent meeting to tighten UVic’s divestment policy. UVic president Howard Petch mentioned Mandela’s honourary degree during the heated debate.

"It’s the first time the board had heard of this, " said Tindall.

“The purpose of this resolution is to remove what is an extremely em- barrassing policy of this university (which says) to the world that ‘sure we have some values in showing moral indignation about apartheid, by making sure we don’t support it, but we will only give it third ranking importance after return and security of assets," said Dickson.

UVic currently has a three-tiered policy. The first two considerations are the financial return and security on investments. The university only questions a company’s ties to South Africa when it has equal offers from two banks or companies on returns.

Eight of the 23 companies the university said it would deal with in 1986-87 have investments in companies with ties to South Africa, ac- cording to Yusuf Salooje, ANC representative in Canada. .

"We have to consider what is good for the university. Sanctions have not proved to be beneficial to blacks, " said Terry Wiley, non- academic staff representative to the BOG.

“If they don’t work what will work?" asked Terry Bonds, a Vancouver NDP Member of the Legislative Assembly. "They will contribute to what will work. I would have to condemn (the anti-sanction argument) as a | cop out." |

Terry Padgham, chair of the Victoria Southern Africa Coalition, said | "We are very strongly opposed to business ties with South Africa. We : are not satisfied that voluntary sanctions work.”

Dickson also thought UVIc’s involvement in the bid for the Common- | wealth games was hypocritical.

"We don’t even have the guts as a university to stand up and take a position on an issue that is so near and dear to the hearts of so many com- monwealth countries. I think that if our policy became known among the other commonwealth countries it would be enough to defeat the bid,"

| | | |

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The motion was referred to the next BOg meeting, where evidence

Page 5 —

Dickson said. |

_ moment they can’t see anything on their television screen,” said Dube. “That is the main

CHOICE:-CRACKS

Noél Coward, on being asked about the current state of Opera, quipped: “People are wrong when they say that Opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what is wrong with it.”

"South Africa is trying to | that companies UVic does business with have ties to South Africa can create some buffer zones to dis- ; | be presented. tract attention from what’s going |

students.

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