As apartheid laws erode, many black South African businessmen are feeling bullish. While bowing to worldwide pressure, President F. W. de Klerk’s administration sees the emerging black middle class as a force for stability and a potential bulwark against radicalism. At the same time, the stage is nearly set for international trade sanctions to end. Pretoria has met most conditions established by the United States for lifting the restrictions, and will probably complete the process in the next six months. The European Community might even begin to remove sanctions as early as its summit next month in Rome

Now that it appears sanctions might be lifted, the businessmen are looking forward to the opportunity to forge economic ties with the outside world–and some are getting a head start. Last month 60 of South Africa’s leading black businessmen made a 16-day, five-city tour of the United States. Nelson Mandela lauded “this historic mission, which would prepare black entrepreneurs to play a more meaningful role” in postapartheid South Africa. The delegation’s meetings with representatives of McDonald’s and a number of leading black-owned U.S. businesses such as Chicago’s Seaway National Bank were long on symbolism and short on substance: before leaving South Africa, the group had promised the African National Congress that it would not make any deals that would violate the sanctions. After all, they can always come back later.

It’s been a long road for black businesses. Amid the 1976-77 Soweto uprising, a number of black-owned businesses were burned because, as van Rooyen puts it, “they were perceived as part of the system.” But many black entrepreneurs have since gained credibility in townships, in part because of their open support for sanctions. “The sanctions legislation has had a major negative effect on black business development in the country,” says management consultant Willie Ramoshaba. ‘But given [those] losses and compared to the [political] gain, we d like to believe it was worth making that sacrifice." .Ioses Moloele, a paraffin-gas distributor for Shell. says. “I want to become one of the major entrepreneurs in the new South Africa, where color won’t mean anything to anybody " That new society is years away at best. But for South Africa’s black capitalists, the dream is bright. Someday, it may even be lucrative.