'End apartheid by 1 January 1987', panel of eminent persons asks; details world programme for action by TNCs.

• Position: Transnational corporations

"End apartheid by 1 January 1987', Panel of Eminent Persons asks; details world programme for action by TNCs

The Panel accepts the stated commitment of business to end apartheid but strongly believes that transnational corporations (TNCs) should be more assertive in acting to end apartheid.

All TNCs producing for the military, police and security sectors in South Africa should withdraw immediately.

The mandatory arms embargo should be expanded immediately to include dual-use items serving military and civilian purposes; motor vehicles, computers and electronic equipment should be considered as dual-use items.

The existing voluntary oil embargo should be made mandatory.

Nuclear co-operation of any kind with South Africa and Namibia should be prohibited.

TNCs should refuse to comply with orders under South African security legislation.

There should be no licensing of technology, and no supply of equipment and services to the petroleum sector. Governments should prohibit future purchases of South African and Namibian coal and uranium ore.

These were among the key recommendations outlined in an international programme for ending apartheid and the occupation of Namibia adopted on 11 October by the 11-member Panel of Eminent Persons which conducted public hearings on activities of TNCs in South Africa and Namibia from 16 to 19 September at United Nations Headquarters.

The four-day public hearings were held under the aegis of the United Nations Commission on TNCs, at the direction of the Economic and Social Council, to review testimony from a variety of sources concerning the role of TNCs in southern Africa and to propose concrete remedial measures that could be undertaken at the national and international levels.

The Panel said its recommendations were based on the premises that if TNCs did not engage themselves actively in the abolition of the apartheid system, they must be considered as contributing to the maintenance of the system. If they could not effect the necessary changes, they should withdraw.

In the report--"Transnational Corporations, South Africa and Namibia: Abolishing apartheid and ensuring self-determination for Namibia'--the Panel set a deadline of 1 January 1987 for the South African regime to rescind the Influx Control Laws and the Group Areas Act--major legislative pillars of the apartheid system--and called on the Security Council immediately to adopt a resolution to provide for complete disinvestment from South Africa...