About 14 percent of private investments in the United States belong to South African citizens.

Speaking to members of the NIU History Club Thursday, NIU history professor John Higinson said the investments were at first thought of as Dutch assets by U.S. government officials, but after careful scrutiny, they were found to belong to South Africans using Dutch names.

He said the investments were in farm equipment, chemicals, food processing, steel and the computer industry. He said the United States was dependent on southern Africa for the raw materials necessary to successfully execute U.S. space and nuclear programs. He said this dependence explains U.S. reluctance to support mandatory and far reaching economic sanctions against the regime.

Higinson traced the relationship between the United States and South Africa to 1949, a year after the Nationalist Party in South Africa had deprived the country’s black majority of most of its democratic freedoms.

Higinson said that in 1949 South African Defense Minister T.E. Erasmus asked for the sale of military tanks and fighters to defend the state against a communist plot for a revolution.

He said contrary to arguments by the South African propaganda machine, the territory will not come under Soviet influence if western countries ceased to support the apartheid regime.

Higinson said opposition against apartheid inside South Africa is strong in spite of repressive measures by the authorities to stifle dissent.

The regime has had to discard its theory that professional revolutionaries were behind the various uprisings which have characterized the territory since the Sharpeville massacre 28 years ago.

Higinson argued for economic sanctions against South Africa, saying the black majority were already hard pressed and were willing to endure anything, provided this would lead to the eventual collapse of the apartheid system.

He also said armed struggle against the South African government would continue in spite of recent successes against members of the African National Congress.