Two South Africans Disagree On Harvard Divestiture Issue

Two white South Africans gave strikingly different answers to the question "Should Harvard Divest?" before close to 30 members of the Harvard community last night.

Kenneth Carstens, a minister who is the executive director for the International Defense and Aid Fund for South Africa, argued for divestiture on moral, not economic grounds. Carstens said the power of divestiture is symbolic, adding "that is far more important than dollars."

But speaker Robert Conway, a fellow at the Center for International Affairs (CFIA) and a member of the official opposition party in South Africa, said divestiture would not help South African Blacks.

"The first people to be hurt by disinvestment will be the Blacks in South Africa," Conway said. "A strong economy in South Africa will help Blacks [to] get things changed, because they can work within a strong system."

However, both participants agreed that the current situation in South Africa is deplorable, and Harvard's investment policy has been inadequate, although the two officials offered different solution for the University.

While Carstens urged Harvard to divest, Conway recommended that the University create a scholarly center on South Africa as well as offer more scholarships to South Africans of all colors. Harvard should also establish its own investment guidelines rather than simply using the classifications of the Sullivan Principles, Conway added.

Each speaker talked for 30 minutes, and later took questions from the audience. The debate was generally calm and topics raised by the audience ranged from Harvard's investments in South Africa to the United States' supply of arms to that country with arms through Israel.

Divestiture became a prominent campus issue in 1978 when students occupied President Bok's office and later organized a torchlight procession through the streets of Cambridge for the cause.

Last year, about 19 students fasted to protest Harvard investments in South Africa, and seniors began the Endowment for Divestiture, an alternative fund to the Class Gift that will go to Harvard when it divests.