South African Investment

South African Investment

Ans A

To a certain extent it may be true that the possible utilitarian benefits of building the Caltex plant in South Africa in 1977 may have been more important than correcting the moral wrongs of Apartheid. That does not mean that Apartheid in any way, shape, or form is ever right or justified or permissible. However, there is a truth to the fact that the jobs offered in that plant may have been some of the best means available for blacks and other minorities in South Africa to care for their families. While freedom and full civil rights are critically important to all persons so that they can achieve their full potential and claim their proper place in the world, there are other, more basic needs that must be satisfied before one can worry about intellectual, spiritual, and other personal rights and freedoms. It would do little to offer a man full social, government, and legal rights if his children are starving to death.

The Caltex plants did have the power to put political pressure on the government of South Africa to change its laws. Financial investment means a great deal to a country. It is a shame that Caltex had not problem going into a nation whose laws were so repulsive to humanity. However, it is also a fact that at the time the standard of life for South African Blacks and other minorities was deplorable. They had poor homes, poor food availability, poor educational programs, were denied the right to pursue certain jobs, and were offered wages that were far below that of South African Whites. All of this the government laws supported and required. For many of the South African Blacks, for whom so many outside the country took it upon themselves to speak, without their authority, they may have preferred to have one of the Caltex Jobs which offered them a better living wage and better job conditions. Just because some Black South Africans spoke of the need for absolute freedom, that may not have been the priority of the average South African Black and it seems equally disrespectful to assume that “we” are right about what they need in the “long run.”

Ans B

I would have voted in favor of all three stockholder resolutions. While I believe that under utilitarian philosophies it may not necessarily have been the best choice for Caltex, Texaco, or Standard Oil to not open plants in South Africa, as a shareholder I would have to vote my personal conscience. Any kind of financial reward, such as helping to generate national income from the extraction of natural resources or building a national industry such as petroleum, seems unconscionable given the basic premise on which the government of South Africa survives .

The first resolution asked Caltex to end all operations in South Africa until and unless the government ended Apartheid. I would have voted in support of that resolution. A failure to make a stand and take a voice ...