Two Italian companies are suing South Africa over a law that requires firms to sell to black investors to redress abuses of black laborers under the apartheid system. The companies say that their purchase of granite operations there occurred in 1994, after the fall of apartheid.
The legacy of institutionalized racism has also taken a particularly bitter turn in the struggle over South Africa’s diamond mines, where the ethnically mixed residents of the diamond-rich Richtersvelders province are enraged by a government deal to sell mine holdings there to de Beers.
The land, which was appropriated by the state in the 1920s, is claimed by residents in lieu of a $26 million settlement. But South Africa’s public enterprises minister says his primary concern is the well-being of the government-owned Alexkor mining company.
Sources:
“Italian firms sue SA over mining law”
Mail & Guardian (South Africa), March 9, 2007
“Erwin’s ‘get lost’ to Richtersvelders”
Mail & Guardian (South Africa), March 10, 2007
“Richtersveld talks back on track”
South African Press Association, March 14, 2007
well in my school i think i herd the same story i would like to here more