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U.S. Dollars in South Africa: Context And Consequence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Jennifer Davis
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Extract

“From a tiny stream grows a mighty flood ...”

At the end of 1966 U.S. direct investment in South Africa was $490 million. Ten years later the dollar value of U.S. direct investment had more than trebled, reaching a figure of at least $1.67 billion by 1976.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , Winter 1977 , pp. 17 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1977 

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References

Notes

1. Direct investment is used to mean investment of a non-resident (person or corporation) who has a controlling interest in a South African organization. Control means the holding of at least 25% of the voting or ownership rights by a single person or several affiliated persons, or ownership rights of at least 50% of the voting rights in a South African organization by various residents in one country. Direct investment is thus distinguished from loans, although both are sometimes referred to loosely as ‘investment’ or, more usually, ‘foreign liabilities’.

2. Figures on U.S. involvement are not easily obtained. The South African Reserve Bank divides the world into geographic regions, such as the EEC, Americas (or dollar area), Africa, etc. It gives no specific country data. As there is very little capital flow, either direct investment or loans, from the rest of North or South America to South Africa, it can safely be assumed that figures quoted for the Americas provide a useful approximation of U.S. involvement.

3. South Africa: An Appraisal, The Nedbank Group Economic Unit, Johannesburg, July 1977, Tables 95, 96, 97, 98.

4. Nedbank, p. 43.

5. “International Credit and South Africa,” by William Raiford, in U.S. Corporate Interests in Africa, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, January 1978.

6. South African Reserve Bank: Annual Economic Report, 1977, Johannesburg, p. 12. Note that for Reserve Bank purposes, the economic year runs from July 1 to June 30 and is thus shown as 75/76, 76/77, etc.

7. SARB, p. 12.

8. Nedbank, p. 225.

9. Nedbank, p. 223.

10. Financial Mail, September 16, 1977, pp. 1054-56. Figures have been left in Rand here, and in several other places for convenient comparison over time, as the exchange rate between the $ and the R has been subject to several insignificant changes since 1971. The most recent 1975 devaluation of the Rand changed its dollar value from $1.47 to $1.14.

11. Raiford, p. 49.

12. Nedbank, pp. 97, 98.

13. Nedbank, p. 100. This development also reflected the continued attempt by a section of the national bourgeoisie to use its control of the state to build economic power.

14. Africa Research Bulletin, London, August 15-September 14, 1976, p. 998; X-Ray, London, June-August 1975.

15. Nedbank, p. 154.

16. Financial Mail, October 21, 1977.

17. Nedbank, p. 211.

18. Airforce, Airforce Association, December 1977; Raiford, p. 55.

19. Nedbank, p. 206.

20. Raiford, pp. 44-45.

21. Raiford, p. 45.

22. The Star, Johannesburg, August 27, 1977.

23. Financial Mail, November 25, 1977.