Editorial Death throes of apartheid?

Given the present dangerous state of affairs in South Africa, on the face of it it’s probably a good move — certainly a shrewd move — for that country’s mining giants, Anglo American Corp. and De Beers Consolidated Mines to offer its mostly black employees a gift of company shares. The two companies, according to a recent report, plan to give each employee (about 200,000 at Anglo, another 20,000 at De Beers, and about 80 per cent of whom are black), an outright gift of from five to 10 shares every year over the next five years, for a total cost to the companies at current market values of something like $200 million.

Obviously there is a very large political element involved here, since it’s not the normal habit elsewhere of free enterprise concerns such as Anglo and De Beers to simply hand out company stock to its employees. Significantly enough, in fact, the move appears to be recognition on the part of both companies that apartheid is on its way out in South Africa, and that they must begin to accommodate to that reality. In making the announcement of the stock gift plan, both companies state that they acknowledge the country’s “transition away from apartheid,” and that “in the new society now emerging South Africans need common goals, common experience and common challenges.” There’s an element of both common sense and corporate courage in the companies’ proposal.

South Africa’s biggest labor union, the National Union of Mineworkers, not unexpectedly views it as nothing but economic and political blackmail, and wants the scheme rejected, calling instead for better wages and working conditions. These will come in time no doubt, but meanwhile the Anglo/De Beers proposal, while somewhat radical, has a good deal to recommend it under the present circumstances in South Africa.