In support of change and the demise of apartheid, IBM disinvested from South Africa in 1986. This memory is a personal account of this experience.

IBM South Africa, established in 1952, was an employer of great stature. So proud were the IBM South African team, that local legends have IBMers "forgetting" to take off their IBM identity cards at social functions so that they could not so subtlety let it be known they were indeed IBMers.

As the child of a retired IBMer I am proud to say that IBM transformed my life, providing tertiary education that would otherwise not have been financially possible, thereafter and to date employment for the past twenty six years.

Conscious of the need for extreme change during tense political times, IBMers watched with trepidation as a steady stream of US companies disinvested from South Africa. Hungry for a changed South Africa, the thought of IBM disinvesting was a price many considered that they would not ever be able to pay. While speculation was rife, IBM retained a position of strength, denying its imminent departure for many months.

Each denial brought renewed hope until one fateful day in October 1986 when the employees of IBM South Africa were invited to a town hall meeting in the ballroom of a nearby hotel. It was not the fanfare of a dancing band that awaited us, but hushed tones from our US and local leaders as they, with IBM's respect for the individual, informed us first that IBM was indeed departing local shores to facilitate a hastened rate of reform in South Africa. Shock, horror and disbelief swept through the ballroom. Complexions visibly paled at the sound of this news, tears streamed down the cheeks of men and women alike as they filed silently out of the ballroom.

Though considered and anticipated, the final blow hit heavy and hit hard. Depressed and fearful of a future without IBM as a local subsidiary, it took time for most to grasp and appreciate the magnificence of this decision, designed to change many more lives than those of the local IBM South African team.

The storm was weathered, the changes were made and in the mid nineties IBM returned to the liberated South Africa they had helped to create.