Dozens of US and foreign companies will be forced to fight off costly lawsuits claiming that they helped South Africa’s white rulers repress blacks during the apartheid era, after the US Supreme Court failed to intervene on Monday.

ExxonMobil, IBM, Credit Suisse and 30 other companies had tried to persuade the court to reverse an appeals court ruling that had allowed the apartheid case, American Isuzu Motors v Ntsebeza, to proceed.