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Still paying for apartheid

The sixth in a series of articles in which Hester Ross follows the progress of the Queen's Jubilee Baton through the Commonwealth and focuses on debt related issues encountered along the way. The baton arrives in South Africa this week, having travelled the length of the continent.

Nelson Mandela is nothing less than a global hero. And so we treat him like one. Following his election as President of the new South Africa the support of the international community was overwhelming: we called street names after him, afforded him the freedom of our cities, awarded him honorary degrees… and handed him a bill for £11.3 billion pounds. Yes, really.

Because for years to come the children of Mandela's generation, and their children's children, will continue to repay money borrowed by the apartheid regime to oppress them. Would you send the family of someone who had been murdered the bill for the bullets that killed him? Yet incredibly South Africans are still being being asked to finance apartheid.

In 2001 South Africa allocated £2.9 billion for debt repayments. In comparison, despite facing a cholera epidemic, only £3 million was earmarked for community water supplies and sanitation, and less than £2 million for desperately needed AIDS intervention.

The absurdity of this situation is clear for all to see. International law states that if a loan is 'used against the interests of the local population' then it is 'odious' and need not be repaid. As far back as 1973 the United Nations decreed that apartheid was a crime against humanity. So the international financial community knew very well what they were lending money for, yet continued to lend, and are now insisting on repayment.

Double standards? Hypocrisy?

After World War II, the international community rightly realised how unwise it would be to force Germany to make unpayable reparations: she was to be given the chance to rebuild. No more than 3.5 % of her export earnings were to be paid. That's the way we treated old enemies. Here's how we treat our heros: two years into the post apartheid era Mandela's South Africa was paying 12% of her export earnings in debt repayments. That would have been enough to fund free health care for every citizen, build 300,000 homes and some schools too.

Wouldn't you like to give South Africa the chance to rebuild too?

Visit www.jubileescotland.org.uk for more on Scotland's debt campaign or e-mail mail@jubileescotland.org.uk )
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