Stampeding toward the Exit

Abstract

From 1977 to 1982 the number of United States companies that became signatories of the Sullivan Principles continued to expand rapidly, reaching a high point of 146 companies in 1982.¹ There was a perceptible decline from 1983 to 1986, and the decline was precipitous from 1987 onwards. In 1993, the last year before South Africa freed itself from apartheid and its White-minority government, there were only 50 signatory companies left in South Africa. Clearly, during this period there were forces at work whose combined effect was to erode the arguments in support both of the Sullivan Principles and of United States companies’ continuing their operations in South Africa.