A preliminary search shows the city of Cambridge has no investments in companies linked to South Africa to divest, George O'Brian, assistant city manager for fiscal affairs, said yesterday.

Charged by the City Council with ferreting out city holdings linked to "the apartheid regime, abhorrent to every principle of human rights," O'Brian reported yesterday that none of the investments in the city's $6 million trust and agencies account were on a Commerce Department list of companies operating in South Africa.

Furthermore, a check of the major investments in the city's $24 million Retirement Board portfolio showed no investments linked to South Africa, he said.

Although checks on the Retirement Board budget will continue next week, O'Brian said "it looks like we're not going to have to get rid of very much."

"I guess we'll just have to be careful not to buy any in the future," he added.

Total divestiture of South Africa-related stocks would be the "least time-consuming and most to the point" method of dealing with any tainted investments found in further checks, O'Brian said, although he added that the city could "take a bath" if forced to sell off certain long term bonds. "That money would have to be replaced in next year's tax levy," O'Brian said.

Concern about Cambridge investments in South Africa peaked last fall, when city residents voted two-to-one to condemn municipal financial interests in companies linked to the country.

The City Council voted unanimously last week to send the controversy to O'Brian for a report. The real instigators, though, "were the student groups, who for years were the only ones concerned with this issue," city councilor David Sullivan, who introduced the council order, said last week.