Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO analyzed South Africa's financial situation and U.S. options for imposing further financial sanctions against South Africa, focusing on: (1) South Africa's foreign debt and its loan rescheduling arrangements; and (2) the feasibility of excluding South Africa from international funds transfer systems.
GAO found that South Africa: (1) owed about $14.6 billion to international banks at the end of 1988; (2) imposed a moratorium on repayment of the principal on its short-term debts in 1985 and has had difficulty obtaining new loans since because of its repayment policies and political difficulties arising from its apartheid system; (3) has rescheduled debt repayments three times, but has agreed to pay about $1.5 billion by the end of 1993, at which time it will need to reschedule about $6.5 billion in debt; and (4) is no longer a member of one important international funds transfer system and, since the other system is privately owned, it is unlikely that it could be excluded from that system.
