Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act

Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986

Long title	An Act to prohibit loans to, other investments in, and certain other activities with respect to, South Africa, and for other purposes.
Nicknames	Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986
Enacted by	the 99th United States Congress
Effective	October 2, 1986
Citations
Public law	99-440
Statutes at Large	100 Stat. 1086
Codification
Titles amended	22 U.S.C.: Foreign Relations and Intercourse
U.S.C. sections created	22 U.S.C. ch. 60 § 5001 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/4868 by William H. Gray (D-PA) on May 21, 1986 Committee consideration by House Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House Foreign Affairs, House Public Works and Transportation, House Ways and Means, House Rules Passed the House on June 18, 1986 (voice vote) Passed the Senate as the Senate on August 15, 1986 (84-14, in lieu of www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/senate-bill/2701) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on September 12, 1986 (310-79) Vetoed by President Ronald Reagan on September 26, 1986 Overridden by the House on September 29, 1986 (315-84) Overridden by the Senate and became law on October 2, 1986 (78-21)

The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was a law enacted by the United States Congress. The law imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apartheid. The sanctions were repealed in July 1991 after South Africa took steps towards meeting the preconditions of the act.

Sponsored by Senator William Roth, the CAAA was the first United States anti-apartheid legislation. The act was initiated by Congressman Ronald V. Dellums in reaction to the plight of blacks in South Africa and demanded the end of apartheid. The legislation aimed to ban all new U.S. trade and investment in South Africa and would be a catalyst for similar sanctions in Europe and Japan. Direct air links were also banned, including South African Airways flights to U.S. airports. The act also required various U.S. departments and agencies to suppress funds and assistance to the then pro-apartheid government.

Democrats in the Senate initially tried to pass the Anti-Apartheid Act in September 1985, but could not overcome a Republican filibuster.President Ronald Reagan viewed the act as an intrusion on his authority to conduct foreign policy and issued his own set of sanctions, but Democrats considered them to be "watered down and ineffective."

The bill was re-introduced in 1986 and brought up for a vote despite Republican efforts to block it to give Reagan's sanctions time to work. It initially passed unexpectedly in the House in June 1986 after Republicans agreed to a voice vote in the hope that the bill would die later on in the process, thus ending any possibility of sanctions. Reagan publicly opposed the bill In August 1986, the Senate passed a version of the Anti-Apartheid Act with weaker sanctions by a margin of 84-14. Democratic leaders in the House agreed to accept the weaker Senate version of the bill in order for it to have sufficient bipartisan support to avert a possible veto.

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