GA/AP/771, 12 December 1977
Miss Hunter, former employee of the Polaroid Corporation, who had led the protest against Polaroid's involvement in South Africa and had brought the matter before the Committee in 1971, said Polaroid's recent announcement was only "an attempt to further cover up its role of supplier to the apartheid pass system".
Polaroid had used the same tactics in 1970, she said, when the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers' Movement had exposed its role as the sole supplier of passbook film and equipment, and had demanded its withdrawal from South Africa. "Then, as now, Polaroid responded with empty public gestures and a cover-up of its continued trade with the South African pass system and Government".
She said Polaroid's secret dealing with the South African military and the Bantu Reference Bureau via clandestine methods raised many serious questions concerning United States corporate technological support for the South African Government. In addition, Polaroid had research and manufacturing experience with many war materials involving polarizing and night-seeing devices. Cover-ups were not new to either the South African Government or to Polaroid.
Another issue which must be examined in view of Polaroid's alleged withdrawal, she said, was the announcement by Vorster that South Africa would change from passbooks to identity cards for Africans. This "cosmetic change" was the result of further sophistication of American technology-IBM computerss and computer-compatible-Polaroid-ID cards. Thus, she said, the same information that was contained in the passbook could be coded onto an identity card and could be used to enforce "the same dehumanization and control under the same police powers".
Vorster had further stated that this plan would be used to force more of the African majority "into the barren and desolate lands under the Bantustan policy", she said.
The Vorster plan for "new" identity documents for the African majority must be seen as an attempt to further strengthen apartheid, to enforce the pass laws as a means of responding to the increased action against apartheid within South Africa, and as more profits for United States corporate suppliers and supporters, she said.
Polaroid was unique in that it was the only company that could fulfil South Africa's need for instant identification systems-whether passbook or race identity card, she said. "The Vorster plan for 'new' identity documents challenges the effect and the truth of Polaroid's alleged withdrawal and cover-up."