Gulf Fights South African Pressure Over Angola Oil Operations

Gulf Oil can't win in Angola. In the early 1970's, it faced shareholder opposition to its royalty payments to Portuguese colonial authorities ruling in Angola. Now, with Portugal out of Angola, Gulf finds itself under stockholder pressure once again-but for a different reason, and from a different source.

The U.S.-Namibia (South West Africa) Trade and Cultural Council is employed by the administrator general of the territory of South West Africa/Namibia, the South African-appointed official who governs the country. The Council owns 10 shares of Gulf common stock.

South Africa seems to have taken a leaf from the tactics book of its U.S. church opponents, as the Council has submitted three proposals to Gulf, calling for the company to refrain from expanding production in Angola, to assure that Gulf revenues "are not used to finance SWAPO terrorist attacks against Namibia," and to cease opposing the U.S. policy of non-recognition of Angola.

SWAPO refers to the South West African People's Organization, which the United Nations recognizes as the "sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people," It is currently fighting to wrest power from the South African - imposed government in Namibia.

This is the first instance of a registered foreign agent initiating a shareholder resolution against an American corporation. The Council's officers include Carl Shipley, an attorney and Republican Party activist, and Marion Smoak, a retired U.S. ambassador and former protocol chief in the Nixon administration.

"We strongly oppose Gulf's efforts to increase its financial commitment to Angola," Shipley and Smoak wrote the company, "until such time as Angola is not under Soviet domination and no longer harbors the terrorists who are striving to take over Namibia by force."

Gulf has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to omit the Council's resolutions from its 1982 proxy statement, claiming that the Council's supporting statement violates SEC regulations prohibiting "false or misleading" statements in proxy material.

The company says the Council's allegation that "revenues produced by the company support the presence of foreign military personnel in Angola and the activities of SWAPO terrorists is "without support or foundation." It claims the Council is using the shareholder resolution for "propagandizing political positions on behalf of its client, Namibia, presumably for remuneration." In response, the Council has sued Gulf in U.S. district court to prevent the company from omitting the Council's resolution.

The Council is one of several lobbyists funded by South African sources. Its reports filed with the Justice Department indicate it received $388,470 between September 1980 and September 1981, almost double the budget of the next largest South Africa-related lobbying organization, the South Africa Foundation.

-Report by Carole Collins, a Guest Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and national coordinator of the Campaign to Oppose Bank Loans to South Africa.