On 28 January 1987, Oliver Tambo, President of the African National Congress (ANC), met with the United States Secretary of State George P. Shultz in Washington D.C. to use American influence to press other Western countries to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, at least as strong as those enacted by Congress over President Reagan’s veto. Emerging from a 50-minute meeting with Shultz, Tambo said he had also urged a broadening of the American sanctions.
The meeting marked the first time any Secretary of State had met with the ANC leader Tambo, whose organisation advocated for an end to apartheid in South Africa, was banned by the racist Pretoria authorities. It also was an indication that the United States recognised the ANC as a central factor in the South African struggle and was willing to engage in discussions with the organisation.
George Shultz held the meeting amid criticism from conservatives, who condemned the ANC as a “pro-Soviet terrorist” organisation. The Secretary addressed these two issues at the outset of the discussions, according to the State Department spokesman, Charles E. Redman. He said that Shultz had “laid out our concerns about the degree of Soviet influence in the ANC” and the group’s use of violence.
Oliver Tambo, on the other hand, called it “a very serious and substantive meeting”, and Redman used the same characterisation. “We found there was a large area of agreement on the nature of the apartheid system, on the
