November 12, 1974 - UN Suspends South Africa - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

UN suspends South Africa from General Assembly. After years of resolutions, restrictions and embargoes against South Africa and its state-sanctioned racist system of apartheid, the United Nations went one step further by suspending the country from the UN General Assembly on November 12, 1974. South Africa retaliated by retaining its overall membership without paying its dues. But this only racked up a $100 million US debt for the eventual post-apartheid government. Meanwhile, black South Africans spent years in their struggle for basic human rights. They requested and accepted the short-term pain of international boycotts and embargoes levied against the country for the potential long-term gains that freedom would bring. When South Africa finally granted its black majority the right to vote, the UN lifted the last of its sanctions against the country on May 25, 1994. In 1995 $95 million of South Africa’s arrears was paid when a surplus from other member countries came into the U.N. coffers. Nearly $30 million of that surplus came from the United States alone.

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