South Africa’s position and practice with regard to unilateral and extraterritorial coercive sanctions

This chapter covers firstly the adoption and implementation of UN as well as unilateral sanctions against apartheid South Africa from the 1960s to the early 1990s and the role played by the African National Congress (ANC) during this period in the international isolation of South Africa. The ANC’s position with regard to sanctions during this period is then contrasted with its often ambivalent position as governing party after 1994, especially with regard to the imposition of unilateral coercive sanctions in the case of human rights abuses, which, as the chapter argues, is a consequence of the ANC’s ideological disposition and its membership of the African Union and the Non-Aligned Movement. This part also covers the post-1994 legislative developments in respect of the imposition of sanctions and the impact of unilateral coercive sanctions on the banking industry.