During a House Foreign Affairs Committee markup in July, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) introduced an amendment which would condemn the apartheid government of South Africa. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) opposed the amendment in debate.
00:00be heard. If not, there's no further discussion in the bill. The committee will move to consideration
00:05of amendments. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? Mr. Meeks. I have an amendment at the
00:09desk. Clerk will distribute the amendment. Sir, is it 41? Yes. No. I have more. 41. Number 41.
01:00Thank you. Clerk shall report the amendment.
01:06Amendment to H.R. 2633, offered by Mr. Meeks, New York. Page 2, beginning on line 3. Insert the
01:14following new paragraphs and redesignate accordingly. Without objection, further reading
01:20of the amendment is dispensed with. The representative is recognized for five minutes on the amendment.
01:24Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm introducing this amendment because I believe that it's extremely
01:30important that we acknowledge the fuller history here if we're going to look comprehensively
01:38at the United States-South African relations. And if this bill is going to criticize the South
01:47African government's decisions, some of which, as I said, I disagree with, just as there's a lot of
01:55disagreements that I have with the United States government and that we've had not only now,
02:01but over the years. But so, therefore, the record should also reflect the terrible decisions
02:09that were made in South Africa by South Africa's apartheid regime prior to 1994.
02:18It should be clear. So, this amendment just restates the basic facts that an apartheid Africana government
02:31ruled South Africa between 1940 to the 1990s. That that government refused to grant political or
02:43civil rights to the nation's black majority. It is also true that this government, the apartheid government
02:52of South Africa, imprisoned Nelson Mandela for over 27 years. This apartheid government who looked at black South
03:10South Africans having no rights, no ability to vote, no ability to free movement. Yet, the United States government
03:24did not sanction it. In fact, it was the last country to join to sanction South Africa after the rest of the world had done it.
03:37The last one. Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994. Yet, it took from 1994 to 2008 to even
03:56get Nelson Mandela off the terrorist list in the United States.
04:04We've got a lot of work to do to make up to South Africa for our awful behavior. So, to come in this short period of time, as Mr. Jackson said in less than 30 years, and now want to sanction the South African government, after all that it has been through, is just wrong. And this record should reflect the true history of what has taken place.
04:33of what has taken place. Because this amendment takes us back to where we should never want to go. We should be able to sit down and talk to South Africa, who over those last 30 years, with the leadership of Nelson Mandela, have worked with us cooperatively also, in many areas.
04:55over these areas, this disagreement, this disagreement that we have on certain issues, shouldn't cause a fracture that would lead us continually to move in a wrong direction. So, are we going to do this kind of amendment. Market. Let it reflect
05:25the spirit of those black South African citizens
05:31of coming back and being able to become presidents
05:37and governments headed by black South Africans
05:40when they've been forbidden to do it
05:42for such a long period of time.
05:45So I urge my colleagues to support this amendment
05:50so that the record would be clear and reflect
05:55who and what South Africa represents in its entirety
05:59and not in just a limited viewpoint.
06:02Now you're back to balance of my time.
06:04Any further discussion?
06:05Mr. Chairman.
06:06Representative Jackson.
06:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:09In the middle of the night and in bad faith,
06:12Democrats introduced this amendment
06:13which has no relevance to the underlying bill.
06:16The findings listed in my legislation
06:21call out the bad actions
06:22by the current South African government.
06:26And I don't see any role in going back
06:29and looking at past governments
06:31and the relationships previously.
06:32This is the current South African government
06:35and the U.S. South African relations now.
06:37And the ranking member's amendment is nothing more
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