Navigating Sanctions and Apartheid: The Case of Barclays Bank in South Africa
In this session of the International Business Seminar Series, Dr. Kondwani Happy Ngoma examined the role of firms in advancing or hindering social integration and their response to political risk in the context of economic sanctions and decolonisation. Using the case of Barclays Bank in South Africa between 1960 and 1990, he analysed how the firm navigated the tensions of operating under apartheid.
The paper presented by Dr. Ngoma focuses on Barclays Bank, the leading bank in South Africa during the period under study. Following the institutionalisation of apartheid in 1948, the bank’s interests and operations in South Africa and Britain came under increasing strain. While existing research has largely focused on the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, fewer studies have adopted a firm-centred perspective.
Drawing on a business history approach, Dr. Ngoma shows how Barclays positioned itself in relation to apartheid and international sanctions. The bank publicly stated that it opposed apartheid, while arguing that remaining in the country would have a transformative effect. This position aligned with the policy of “constructive engagement” later adopted by the Thatcher and Reagan administrations in the 1980s.
The findings demonstrate how this policy was not unique to the 1980s, but was strategically influenced by Barclays and its interests from the 1960s onwards. As the leading source of foreign direct investment, the bank played a central role in shaping British policy toward South Africa.
Dr. Kondwani Happy Ngoma is an Ax:son Johnson Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and holds a PhD in Economic History from the University of Gothenburg. His research examines how firms navigate political risk in periods of colonisation and decolonisation, with a focus on property rights, economic sanctions, and corporate strategy. His doctoral thesis, State and Business Relations in Southern Africa, was awarded the 2025 Coleman Prize for the best PhD dissertation in business history.