(May 1, 1999) Banks and governments knew perfectly well what they were doing when they lent money to prop up despotic regimes. Now, says Joseph Hanlon, it’s their turn to suffer the consequences.

(April 24, 1999) Debt is the new slavery. It is heartless to expect democratic third-world governments to repay loans made years ago to their nasty dictatorial predecessors.

(April 20, 1999) When Nelson Mandela walked from prison seven years ago, it marked the success of one of the biggest grassroots international campaigns. Working together, we freed Nelson Mandela.

(March 6, 1999) The South African Institute of Race Relations says that it is misleading to label all the government’s debt as “apartheid debt” and that there is no real case for calls being made for the debt to be written off or regarded as “odious.”

(March 3, 1999) Some of the world’s biggest banks propped up the apartheid regime in its dying days, lending it billions of dollars. Now the new government is saddled with the debts.

(November 4, 1998) The government responds to pressure to wipe out the ‘apartheid debt’ by arguing that it’s not technically feasible. Critics say it is.

(October 30, 1998) South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) yesterday accused the country’s business sector of helping to sustain apartheid and called for financial contributions from business to make up for past injustices.

(October 20, 1998) Prominent South Africans have joined a campaign to scrap the apartheid debt before the millennium, says Jubilee 2000 organiser Neville Gabriel

(December 12, 1997) If South Africa is serious about reconciliation and justice, we need to look creatively at the burden of debt incurred by the previous government.