A powerful video of US President-elect Joe Biden speaking against the apartheid government in South Africa has resurfaced and is doing rounds on social media.
The video clip is of July 23, 1986, during a senate hearing involving Ronald Reagan government's then-Secretary of State, George Schultz and shows the strong and longstanding belief of Biden, then a senator in fighting against inequality.
The clip shows Biden speaking passionately in favour of black majority population of South Africa, against the white supremacist government which he can be seen calling "repulsive" and "repugnant".
Challenging Reagan administration Secretary of State George Schultz on government policy towards South Africa, Biden says he is disturbed by the rationale behind it and argues that it amounts to doing nothing.
"We must not become part of South Africa's problems, we must be part of their solution"
"We must not become part of South Africa's problems, we must be part of their solution, we must impose ourselves, our solutions, our favourites in South Africa," he can be seen reading a document, and argues that the Americans must be in favour of the black majority who he says were "being excoriated".
"Dammit, we have favourites in South Africa. The favourites in South Africa are the people that are being repressed by an ugly white regime. We have favourites!" he says.
"Our loyalty is not to South Africa, but to South Africans and South Africans are majority blacks and they are being excoriated. It is not to some stupid, puppet government over there. It is not to Afrikaans (apartheid) regime. We have no loyalty to them".
Senator Biden says that apartheid government had forced the black population to take up arms after years of oppression and argues for a strict law to tackle the segregation of blacks in South Africa.
"What are we saying to the repugnant regime? These people (blacks) are being crushed. We are sitting here with the same kind of rhetoric," he says and accuses US Secretary of State George Shultz of not acting on the matter when he alleges that Biden was trying to call for violence.
"I am not calling for violence. I hate to hear that an administration and Secretary of State refusing to act on a morally abhorrent point. I am ashamed that the country puts out a policy like this that says nothing. We put no specific time table, we put out no demand".
I am ashamed of the lack of moral backbone"
It is pertinent to note that the United States Congress enacted a law, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 following Biden's passionate speech.
The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apartheid, which the latter was under at the time. Most of the sanctions were repealed in July 1991, after South Africa took steps towards meeting the preconditions of the act.
With the creation of the law, the United States government worked to ensure that the current president of the United States could be provided with "additional authority to work with other industrial democracies to help end apartheid and establish democracy in South Africa".
Watch the video here:
