The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-2 Monday to approve the city’s 10-year contract with the American containership service of the Zim Lines, Israel’s national shipping company, after company officials said they were ready to sign an affidavit affirming that it does not do business with South Africa.
The contract under which Zim containerships will call at San Francisco on their westbound voyages instead of at Oakland across the bay was signed by Mayor Dianne Feinstein on a trip to Israel last March. Zim will pay the San Francisco Port $250,000 a year for the duration of the contract, for use of its facilities.
But approval, expected to be routine, ran into difficulties when some members of the Board contended that Zim American-Israeli Shipping Co. (ZAISCO), which operates the containership service from U.S. and Canadian ports, transships cargo to South Africa. The Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance last January barring the city from contracting with companies doing business with South Africa because of its apartheid policy.
Feinstein, who attended the Board’s hearing Monday, cited an opinion by the city’s attorneys that the anti-apartheid ordinance applied to contracts calling for payments from the city, not the receipt of payments as would be the case with Zim.
READY TO SIGN AN AFFIDAVIT
Earlier, Dov Teitler, senior vice president of the Zim Container Service’s West Coast region, based in Los Angeles, told the Northern California Jewish Bulletin in an interview that ZAISCO “does not do business with South Africa and therefore would have no problem signing an affidavit to that effect.”
He said, “More than a year ago (Zim) discontinued accepting cargo for relay (to South Africa) and cancelled all ads accordingly.” But “by oversight some of those advertisements were kept running.” He referred to an advertisement in the March 24, 1986 Shipping Digest soliciting cargo from the Canadian East Coast to South Africa. He said there might have been other such oversights but they were inconsequential.
Willie Kennedy, a member of the Board of Supervisors who was one of the sponsors of the anti-apartheid ordinance, told the Northern California Jewish Bulletin she was satisfied now that ZAISCO does not do business with South Africa. She had been disturbed by reports to the contrary.
As for any possible connection with South Africa by ZAISCO’s Haifa-based parent company, Kennedy said: “It’s a thin line. I guess you’re going to have to give a little along the way.”
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