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Kai Ryssdal: For the past seven years, a pair of lawsuits has been making its way through the federal court system. Five multinational companies, names you’ll definitely recognize, have been accused of working with the former apartheid government in South Africa — of selling it the tools that government then used to brutally suppress the South African population. When the cases eventually go to trial, perhaps by early next year, they may become a new standard for corporate accountability overseas. Gretchen Wilson reports from Johannesburg.

GRETCHEN WILSON: Apartheid was legislated racial segregation, enforced from the 1940s until the early 1990s. Often with brute force. Mpho Masemola remembers the bad old days.

MPHO MASEMOLA: There were a lot of massacres by the apartheid agents shooting innocent people.

In 1984, he was a 20-year-old activist for democracy. His movements were tracked by police, and he was arrested.

MASEMOLA: And during my interrogation, I was brutally assaulted. And they break my bones. And I was electrocuted in my private parts.

He survived other forms of torture that led to ongoing medical conditions in his bladder and his eyes. His right hand lies shriveled at his side. He gulps down anxiety medication. He can’t find a job.

Masemola is one of 13 named plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against five companies: Ford, General Motors, IBM, and two German firms, automaker Daimler, and weapons maker, Rheinmetall.

Tens of thousands of South Africans like Masemola could be included in this litigation for suffering what’s known as “gross human rights violations” during apartheid.

MARJORIE JOBSON: Things like extrajudicial killings, rape, abduction of people, torture.

Marjorie Jobson heads the Khulumani Support Group for survivors of apartheid violence, which supports the litigation. She says these firms knowingly sold South Africa’s government the tools to carry out these atrocities.

For example, she says IBM designed computer technology to track and restrict the movement of millions of black South Africans, including people like Masemola.

JOBSON: The actual hardware, the maintenance contracts and all the software to run this system were all developed by IBM.

The U.N. passed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa in 1977. But plaintiffs say years later Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation were selling the government armored vehicles.

They say Daimler-Benz even had a secret plant — underground — to make such vehicles.

John Ngcebetsha is a lawyer for the plaintiffs:

JOHN NGCEBETSHA: So that is a violation of international law. Because they knew exactly that those vehicles would have been utilized to kill our people.

He says Rheinmetall sold weapons to South Africa using complicated trade routes. And then exported an entire munitions factory.
Rheinmetall, Ford, and IBM declined Marketplace’s requests for interviews. Daimler said in a written statement that the company — quote — at no time cooperated with the South African Security Forces for the perpetuation of apartheid — unquote. General Motors said in a written statement that it had adamantly opposed apartheid. Still, lawyers for the South African plaintiffs expect to prevail in the courts.

NGCEBETSHA: We are confident that we will be able to lay a very strong precedent for global accountability of business.

Plaintiff Mpho Masemola says he prays the suit will succeed. His family survives on a welfare check of less than $200 a month. And he wants monetary reparations from these corporations. But what’s more important is the message it sends to companies.

MASEMOLA: Stop supporting torture, stop supporting the governments that are illegal.
South Africa’s democratic government used to oppose the litigation, fearing it would scare away foreign investors. But last month, the new administration reversed its decision, and said it would be willing to help negotiate an out-of-court settlement.

In Johannesburg, I’m Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.

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Bob Moon: What in the world did we ever do without the Internet? Across North America, three-quarters of us are regular visitors to the World Wide Web. In Africa, on the other hand, not so many. In fact, not even 7 percent of Africans are connected. Those who are have to rely mostly on expensive satellite networks, or sluggish cellphone-based technology. The few broadband networks that do exist are way oversubscribed. But as Gretchen Wilson reports from South Africa, the arrival of some fiber-optic cables may spark a new telecommunications boom.

GRETCHEN WILSON: Cafe Galu is an Internet cafe in central Johannesburg, Africa’s richest city.

Manyano Mahlakata is a 19-year-old college student. His university has Internet access. But it’s so slow, it’s virtually unusable. So he comes here twice a week to get online.

MANYANO MAHLAKATA: Like go to Facebook, go to Google, check my mail.

It costs a dollar an hour. A lot for his tight student budget. Today, he and his friends crowd around one computer terminal. Even here, they sometimes wait 45 seconds for a page to load.

MAHLAKATA: Sometimes I just get bored and then I just log out and end up not checking what I want to check.

What’s considered high-speed Internet in Africa is about 50 times slower than what people are used to in the U.S. And it’s often more expensive because lethargic telecom monopolies have dominated African markets. Alison Gillwald heads Research ICT Africa, a network of technology policy groups.

ALISON GILLWALD: We haven’t seen the kind of dramatic penetration of services that one might have seen in East Asia, for example, nor have we seen the price reductions that one would hope to see. And that’s very often because the markets really haven’t been fully liberalized.

But things are starting to open up. And connection speeds are about to increase. Two huge fiber-optic cables have been laid on the floor of the Indian Ocean linking networks in Europe and Asia to coastal ports in Southern and Eastern Africa.

AIDAN BAIGRIE: Basically allowing countries that haven’t had direct access to broadband before, an opportunity to connect with the rest of the world.

Aidan Baigrie is with Seacom, a private venture that built one submarine cable. It’s 10,000 miles long and offers service providers international connections at a fraction of previous costs. Baigrie says that as Africa’s local networks tap into all this new bandwidth, Internet services will become faster and more affordable.

BAIGRIE: It allows us to offer world-class services that before we couldn’t offer.

Things that Americans are already used to. Like powerful company Web sites, online videos, and Internet-based phone calls. All services that will help Africa better compete with Asia and the West.

BAIGRIE: Bringing broadband to Africa opens up a whole new era in business. One of the challenges for international corporations or even small businesses looking to expand or outsource in South Africa is the huge cost of infrastructure, especially telecommunications.

The arrival of Seacom and other fibre-optic cables has been hyped up in recent months. And consumers in many parts of Africa are anxious to see the impact of the higher speeds. The cable won’t solve all problems straight away, especially in regions where the underground cable networks are old and weak. Or if a computer is really out of date.

The next step is for telecommunications companies on the continent to update their local infrastructures. Some governments are already doing this.

In Johannesburg, I’m Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.

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Steve Chiotakis: Mining companies and other investors are descending on Zimbabwe’s capitol today for what’s billed as the biggest-ever mining conference there. That country’s economy has taken a nose-dive in recent years. But its land is still rich in natural resources including platinum and gold. Both sides of Zimbabwe’s new coalition government hope the conference will help convince investors that the worst is over for the economy. Marketplace’s Gretchen Wilson has more from Johannesburg.

Gretchen Wilson: It’s been one year since President Robert Mugabe and his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, agreed to form a power-sharing government. Today, they’re joining forces to reignite the country’s moribund mining industry.

The southern African country has vast reserves of chrome, nickel, gold and coal, plus the world’s second-largest reserves of platinum, which is coveted by auto makers. But most mining operations screeched to a halt about 10 years ago, when Mugabe’s government started seizing property and calling for the nationalization of private firms.

The coalition government says it wants to pass new laws that will attract foreign investment. It says a law once proposed by Mugabe — to force mining firms to sell assets to local Zimbabweans — is now being reconsidered. Investors at the conference hope to learn more about those laws before pouring money into exploration and development.

In Johannesburg, I’m Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.

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Bill Radke:Officials from the European Union will visit Zimbabwe this weekend. It’s the first visit of its kind since 2002 when Zimbabwe’s economy was in a tailspin. The E.U. imposed sanctions targeting President Robert Mugabe and his allies. This visit by the European delegation is seen as a new effort to normalize ties between the two economies. Reporter Gretchen Wilson has more from Johannesburg.

Gretchen Wilson: The high-level European delegation will meet with President Robert Mugabe and his formal rival, now Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as other ministers in Zimbabwe’s new coalition government.

Zimbabwe’s economy plummeted in the last decade under Mugabe’s rule. There were also countless reports of human rights abuses by government officials. In response, the E.U. and the U.S. imposed travel and business restrictions on Mugabe and his close aides.

Now that there’s a power-sharing government, African leaders want the West to lift all sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle. They say it will help spark economic development.

The E.U. delegation says that it will discuss normalizing ties with Zimbabwe. But the E.U. stresses that the visit doesn’t necessarily mean it will lift sanctions. Officials say they first want to see progress in human rights reforms, respect for the rule of law, and more transparency in financial institutions.

In Johannesburg, I’m Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.

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Steve Chiotakis: Zimbabwe’s devastated economy is getting more than a half a billion dollars from the IMF to help with a severe liquidity crunch there. Annual inflation rates topped an unbelievable 500 million percent last year, and there’s widespread hunger and unemployment. But the economy is starting to stabilize as a new coalition government takes root. U.S. lawmakers say they want that government to succeed. Marketplace’s Gretchen Wilson has more from Johannesburg.

Gretchen Wilson: Five U.S. lawmakers are wrapping up an official visit to Zimbabwe, making it the largest such delegation there since the economy and the rule of law began to erode a decade ago.

The bipartisan group included congressional representatives from New York, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. They met with officials on both sides of the new unity government, including long-time President Robert Mugabe. The U.S. has openly criticized Mugabe’s 29-year-rule and accuses his administration of dismantling a vibrant economy that was once considered the bread basket of Africa.

Mugabe says ongoing sanctions are what’s keeping Zimbabwe’s economy sluggish. But since the coalition government took office February, some basic foods and services have returned to the country. Members of the U.S. delegation say a democratic unity government will be the best chance of improving conditions on the ground.

In Johannesburg, I’m Gretchen Wilson for Marketplace.