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Payback Time!
Shell added to list of companies facing apartheid lawsuits By Nicol Degli Innocenti in Johannesburg
Royal Dutch/Shell, the oil company, is to be cited in a multi-billion-dollar class action lawsuit brought by a team of lawyers on behalf of the victims of South Africa's apartheid regime, a lawyer said yesterday.
A total of 35 companies and banks, including Honeywell, Exxon Mobil, Barclays and Natwest, have so far been identified by the task force. Letters were sent to them in July to propose voluntary settlement talks, and those that have not responded will be taken to court in an effort to force them to pay reparations to the victims of the apartheid regime. The first hearing is scheduled for August 9 in New York. The team of lawyers bringing the class action lawsuit is headed by Edward Fagan, the US lawyer who in 1998 forced Swiss banks into a $1.25bn settlement for victims of the Holocaust. Mr Fagan claims reparations of up to $100bn could be won for the victims of apartheid and says the case will finish in two to three years. In South Africa there is unease at what one activist called Mr Fagan's "cowboy tactics" and relentless publicity-seeking. "We should ensure that no one personality takes the spotlight away from the cause itself and the victims of apartheid," Mr Ngcebetsha said. A statement released after a meeting of lawyers, trade unions, victim support groups and church representatives in Johannesburg said there was great "concern about the impression that has been created that the matter of apartheid reparations is primarily about large amounts of money". While supporting the legal actions, the meeting recommended "a united and co-ordinated approach to the legal claims process". Mr Fagan says his crusade is built on principle rather than greed. Companies that supported the white minority regime should face public judgment: "Were it not for the conspiracy of these financial institutions and companies, apartheid would not have been possible."
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