Open Secrets is a non-profit organisation which exposes and builds accountability for private sector economic crimes through investigative research, advocacy, and the law.
The ongoing failure of South Africa’s investigative bodies and prosecuting authority to secure accountability for high-level corruption and economic crime is one of many serious risks to the country’s future.
Open Secrets is hiring two outstanding candidates (one Intern: Investigations and one Intern: Campaigns) to join our team in Cape Town.
Tomorrow, 15 November, Open Secrets launches its latest report: Who Has the Power? South Africa’s Energy Profiteers. The report is Open Secrets’ first to investigate South Africa’s energy sector and climate crisis. And shines a light on the private interests who seek to profit from South Africa’s current energy crisis and proposed energy transition. It…
Local technology company GovChat became a key partner of the South African Social Security Agency during the pandemic. Today, the company continues to provide a digital avenue to apply for certain grants, even though it is in business rescue and its executives resigned in 2022. This is Part One in a two-part series
Join Open Secrets on the 15th of November 2023, for the launch of Who Has the Power? South Africa’s Energy Profiteers. Open Secrets’ Michael Marchant will be in conversation with Zen Mathe, Abby May and Luthando Vilakazi. Human rights and environmental activist, Kumi Naidoo will also be delivering a key note address on the role of activists in ensuring a just transition.
Open Secrets stands with the Palestinian people. We call for an immediate ceasefire by the Israeli occupation forces and an end to Israeli apartheid.
On 25 October 2023 Open Secrets made a presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee of Justice and Correctional Services on the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill B29-2023. The Bill attempts to make a range of amendments including creating a permanent Investigating Directorate called the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC).
In 2022/23, the Open Secrets challenged impunity with the usual tenacity and grit, talking truth to power and challenging who we call the ‘Unaccountables’.
We’ve added our voice in opposition to Treasury’s attempts to institute severe budget cuts. We believe these cuts are misguided, dangerous to our economy and well-being, and not supported by robust evidence.
We are pursuing accountability for the facilitators of state capture in Zimbabwe. This includes a Mauritian management company agent, UK based company administrators, South African law firms and lawyers and South African registered companies.
South African Police Service Colonel Frans Mathipa was shot in the head and killed by unknown assassins on Sunday, 6 August 2023. Were SANDF Special Forces soldiers the skilled shooters who murdered a seasoned investigator in the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State Unit? If they were, could this explain a court application by the SANDF days before his assassination intended to stymie Mathipa’s investigation into the SANDF’s role in two abductions and potentially other crimes? Open Secrets investigates.
Open Secrets and the Campaign for Free Expression lodged an information application with the Office of the President asking for the final report (and additional relevant information) on the docking of the Lady R Russian cargo vessel during December 2022.
A new report by Open Secrets, revealed here exclusively, details just how consultants have pillaged the state. So how can this disturbing trend be reversed, given the country’s skills crisis?
In The Corporations and Economic Crime: The Consultants, Open Secrets profiles McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Three companies that occupy immensely influential seats at the tables of the world’s most powerful corporations and governments.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is one of the world’s largest consulting firms. Its corporate mission is to “unlock the potential of those who advance the world”. What BGC fails to mention is that this includes its clients who are kleptocrats and dodgy corporations
Please join FM editor Rob Rose and the Open Secrets team for the launch of the The Consultants. We will be discussing the destructive power of BCG, McKinsey and Bain toSouth Africa, and what can be done to hold them to account.
What was an SANDF Special Forces UNIT doing in Simon’s Town when containers were loaded off and on the Russian vessel the Lady R? Open Secrets investigates.
Open Secrets is hiring an Administrator to join our small, dedicated Cape Town-based team. Deadline 6 August
Daily Maverick Investigative journalist, Pauli van Wyk will be hosting Prize-winning journalist, Nick Donovan, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, Michael Marchant & Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, Janet Zhou to discuss Open Secrets and The Sentry’s latest investigative report: “Fronts, Fakes and Façades”.
Michael Marchant explains the findings of Open Secrets and The Sentry’s latest investigative report on state capture in Zimbabwe, Fronts, Fakes and Façades.
SAfm’s Aldrin Sampear is joined by Michael Marchant to discuss the findings of Open Secrets and The Sentry’s latest investigative report titled: ‘Fronts, Fakes, and Façades’.
Channel Africa’s Peter Ndoro speaks to Michael Marchant to find out more about Open Secrets and The Sentry’s latest report, Fronts, Fakes, and Façades.
In 2019, Zimbabwean presidential advisor Kudakwashe Tagwirei moved millions of dollars in suspect funds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to London to buy two Zimbabwean mines— Bindura Nickel and Freda Rebecca Gold Mine—for $29.5 million.
PRESS RELEASE| A joint investigative report by The Sentry and Open Secrets exposes how Zimbabwean presidential advisor and business tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei, was able to move suspect funds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to the City of London.
On Thursday the 6th of July, Open Secrets and The Sentry will be launching our new investigative report, Fronts, Fakes and Façades. The report tells the story of how a politically-connected oil tycoon in Zimbabwe moved suspect funds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to the City of London using front companies, fake invoices, and offshore financial façades.
Open Secrets information requests to the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) and the State Security Agency (SSA) for any documentation regarding South Africa’s attempts to extradite Atul Gupta, Ajay Gupta and Rajesh Gupta.
Director of Open Secrets, Hennie van Vuuren is calling on the Presidency and the US government to make public details of the mysterious cargo of the Russian vessel Lady R which docked in Simon’s Town in December 2022.
Democracy dies behind closed doors – Why we demand to know the truth about the Lady R arms shipment.
The most cynical corporations seek to rip off the poor. Few have been as effective as Net1 and Cash Payment Services (CPS). While they have rebranded, they have not paid back their illicit profits owed to millions of South Africans
Open Secrets delves into the Malo Arms Deal facilitated by South African arms dealer and former secretary to PW Botha, Willem ‘Ters’ Ehlers.
Join Open Secrets and the Continent on the 11th of May 2023, for the launch of The Secretary. The Continents Simon Allison will be in conversation with Open Secrets’ Mamello Mosiana, Hennie van Vuuren and Luthando Vilakazi
Open Secrets is hiring a Campaigner to join our small team based in Cape Town. Application deadline: 12 May 2023.
Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations welcomes the judgment delivered by the South Gauteng High Court which confirms that judges must be held accountable for their conduct while in active service, even after their retirement.
In an important victory for accountability and the integrity of the judiciary-The South Gauteng High Court has ruled that judges must be held accountable for their conduct while in active service, even after their retirement.
Watch Open Secrets’ Head of Investigations Michael Marchant for a webinar conversation with Professor Lukas Muntingh (Dullah Omar Institute), Mbekezeli Benjamin (Judges Matter) and Ra’eesa Pather (Open Secrets) who will help us grapple with how we can seek justice and restitution for state capture crimes.
Open Secrets is hiring a head of unit for our legal unit based in Cape Town
Civil society organisations call out South African government’s invitation to “Sri Lankan officials with links to alleged war criminals.
The #ICMFiles is a series which sheds light on how ICM and its directors made payments to various companies and individuals to flush Transnet money.
This is the third piece in a series on a company called Integrated Capital Management (ICM) and its directors, who enabled and benefitted from state capture at Transnet, but have yet to be held to account.
In part 2 of #ICMFiles series we turn the spotlight on the ICM director who helped the Guptas score big inside Transnet: Stanley Shane
Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations will be heard by a full bench of the South Gauteng High Court arguing that retired judges should be held to account for misconduct they committed while in active service
New information obtained by Open Secrets sheds light on how ICM and its directors made payments to flush Transnet money out of sight.
Mediated Conversation: auditing firm Deloitte had reached a settlement with the company Tongaat Hulette – over the massive auditing scandal at Tongaat.
Open Secrets is hiring a legal intern to join our small, dedicated team based in Cape Town.
Open Secrets Head of Investigations, Michael Marchant, weighs in on the fraud and money laundering Nulane Investments trial
Lawyers and law firms were instrumental in the State Capture project. From prestigious Sandton white shoe firms to crooked small-time attorneys everyone feasted. One attorney who has not been held to account for State Capture crimes is the notorious Daniel Mantsha
Watch Open Secrets’ Zen Mathe in conversation with Moira Campbell (Corruption Watch), Devi Pillay (Public Affairs Research Institute-PARI) and Luthando Vilakazi (Open Secrets) who grapple with how we can address the social costs of state capture and seek restitution for the damage caused.
Open Secrets’ Zen Mathe will be in conversation with Moira Campbell and Devi Pillay. They’ll be exploring how South Africans can address the social costs of state captures and seek restitution for the damage caused.
With a reputation of being incapable of managing the technical constraints of its internal systems, it must be questioned why the South African Social Security Agency and the South African Post Office would make Postbank the preferred partner to take over the administration of social grant payments.
Annual Report 2021/2022 This year Open Secrets has achieved a milestone—this small but feisty and fearless organisation has turned five. What started as an idea has, through tenacity and dedication, become an authoritative civil society voice on the need to hold the powerful to account, especially big corporations that have profited off impunity.
LHR and Open Secrets in Court Today defending the right to access apartheid records
The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture’s media statement on the president’s response to the State Capture Report.
Despite glaring evidence available in the public domain, the findings of the Zondo Commission and a fresh criminal investigation in Germany, South African authorities seem uninterested in holding T-Systems to account.
Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren, weighs in on the Zuma vs. Downer and Maughan case.
Michael Marchant speaks to Sakina Kamwendo about the nearly R50 billion in Unpaid Pensions that belong to almost 5 million people in Southern Africa
Nearly R50 billion. That is how much greedy and negligent pension funds and pension fund administrators owe to almost 5 million people in Southern Africa in unpaid pensions
Sello Maema is the prosecutor inside the NPA who led three of the authority’s most questionable cases at that time. Allegations of Maema’s misconduct were documented in Open Secrets’ latest investigative report: Bad Cops, Bad Lawyers.
Open Secrets is hiring a legal intern to join our small, dedicated team based in Cape Town. Deadline: Friday, 30 September 2022 at 17h00
In December 2021, Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), brought an application in the Gauteng High Court against the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). In the spirit of greater transparency and responsiveness to the plight of pensioners, the application asked the Court to ensure…
Sello Maema is the prosecutor inside the NPA who led three of the authority’s most questionable cases at that time. Allegations of Maema’s misconduct were documented in Open Secrets’ latest investigative report: Bad Cops, Bad Lawyers.
2 June 2022 | This is the repository of documents cited in the 34th profile of the Unaccountable series which focusses on Sello Maema
By Luvo Mnyobe Published in City Press This is how democracy dies. These were my thoughts as I scrolled through Twitter and saw a shameful video of Hlaudi Motsoeneng trying to humiliate senior SABC News journalist Francis Herd. Motsoeneng was appearing on Full View, a prime-time news programme, to give his view of the Judicial…
Are the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and Hawks dragging their feet on cases of state capture? Social justice NGO Open Secrets thinks so and lays out its arguments in a persuasive new report published in August 2022. There are many who would agree.
Bad Cops, Bad Lawyers — documents how the Hawks and the NPA have failed to take on state capture cases.
Our efforts to bring accountability for state capture conspirators.
Whistle-blowers continue to be targeted within Prasa, and there is little evidence of effective reform. The result is that working-class commuters continue to be let down by failing infrastructure and almost non-existent rail services.
Six weeks have passed since Rajesh and Atul Gupta were arrested in Dubai. It follows a request by the National Prosecuting Authority and Justice Ministry, for the controversial brothers to stand trial for alleged State Capture crimes. Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren, explains.
The ANC’s devotion to its policy of cadre deployment is an indication that it values its own power more than the public interest.
Point of View with Phemelo Motene How did the State Capture network move billions of rand stolen from the South African people across the globe? The Zondo Commission report provides some of the details of the network of banks who profited from this — but fails to provide any remedy of how to prevent a…
In this series, Open Secrets profiles the prosecutors inside the National Prosecuting Authority who motivated questionable prosecutions and unduly delayed important cases. In this instalment, we focus on Andrew Chauke, the NPA’s head of public prosecutions in Johannesburg.
Investigators at Open Secrets have warned that the Zondo Inquiry’s alleged failure to point out the banking industry and other middlemen in state capture, may undo future work against corruption. Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations jointly submitted an exhaustive report to the commission on the matter, in 2020. They now contend that the inquiry…
With all parts of the state capture report now published, civil society group Open Secrets is gearing up for the new challenge – getting SA’s law enforcement agencies to act.
The Democratic Alliance has laid criminal charges against the ANC for its role in the intricate large-scale corruption that involved specific individuals, government entities, and private companies in what has become known as the state capture. Findings of the State Capture report have implicated some of the ANC senior leaders including former ANC and State…
We’ve had just about a week to digest the latest instalment of the State Capture report. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to address corruption at various levels of government, and within the governing party has been widely criticised. Several parastatals have also been eaten away by dubious deals and corrupt politicians, leaving South Africans with an…
This investigative report traces the networks of capture and corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, SA Airways, Denel and the SA Revenue Service, and identifies the looters, fixers and politicians who should now be held to account
What do you get if you cross a crooked president, the Gupta brothers and a corrupted ruling party? Hopefully, 20 years to life …
How did the State Capture network move billions of rand stolen from the South African people across the globe? The Zondo Commission report provides some of the details of the network of banks who profited from this — but fails to provide any remedy of how to prevent a repetition of these crimes.
After missing 15 June deadline, the Chief Justice Raymond Zondo Commission has finally submitted part five and six of the report into State Capture. Earlier this week, Guest: Michael Marchant – Head of Investigations at Open Secrets Guest: Cynthia Stimpel – Whistleblower and Author of Hijackers on Board
Clement is joined by Karyn Maughan and Hennie van Vuuren to talk about the arrest of the Gupta brothers in the UAE.
Hennie van Vuuren speaks to Refilwe Moloto about his thoughts on the extradition of the arrested Gupta brothers from Dubai to South Africa.
Director of Open Secrets, Hennie van Vuuren, talks about the Gupta brother’s arrest and the UAE judicial system.
As South Africa’s prosecutors forge ahead with plans to extradite two Gupta brothers, Open Secrets is worried that the odds may be weighed against us.
One non-profit group is worried that the odds may be stacked against SA, in its bid to extradite the Gupta brothers from Dubai. Open Secrets Director, #HennieVanVuuren, speaks about his doubts on the extradition process.
City Press | Hennie van Vuuren South Africa must be wary of the motive and intentions of the UAE on the Gupta matter, writes Hennie van Vuuren. The arrest and detention of Atul and Rajesh Gupta in Dubai is the first step in what could be an epic battle to bring home two of the…
🛩🛩🛩 Wanted: The State Capture Conspirators. Coming 30 June. Music: Abidoza and Major League DJz-Le Plane E’Landile Video production and editing: Luvo Mnyobe, Open Secrets
eNCA Dubai police effected an Interpol Red Notice issued for charges of money laundering. They say they are working with South African officials to extradite the brothers. eNCA speaks to head investigator at Open Secrets, Michael Marchant.
SABC News There’s been mixed reaction to the arrest of the Gupta Brothers in Dubai. According to a statement by the country’s police the two men were being held in connection with money laundering and criminal charges in South Africa. The police say they were acting after receiving an Interpol red notice which was a…
Newzroom Afrika There are growing concerns around how long it will take to extradite the Gupta brothers after they were arrested in Dubai. Atul and Rajesh Gupta were wanted in connection with the R24.9 million paid by the Free State Department of Agriculture for a feasibility study on potential farming projects in the province. Since…
702. The Clement Manyathela Show Clement is joined by the Legal Journalist, Karyn Maughan and the Director of Open Secrets, Hennie van Vuuren to talk about the arrest of the Gupta brothers in UAE and the extradition process by the Justice Department.
State capture relies on a vast network of actors, many of whom have evaded accountability for their role in derailing state-owned entities. This network includes lawyers who have disregarded their ethical and professional duties in service of corrupt networks. Refiloe Mokoena, an attorney who served as a board member at several state-owned entities (SOEs) and as an acting judge, is one such lawyer implicated in state capture
2 June 2022 | This is the repository of documents cited in the 32nd profile of the Unaccountable series which focusses on the misdeeds of attorney Refiloe Mokoena
Mining company Glencore has pleaded guilty to bribery, corruption and price manipulation. The company will pay about US$ 1.5 billion in fines after it admitted to bribing officials in several countries. It’s reported that among other things, money was paid to avoid government audits and to make lawsuits disappear. Head of Investigations at Open Secrets,…
Daily Maverick| By Michael Marchant and Hennie van Vuuren for Open Secrets 31 May 2022 By pleading guilty to decades of bribery, corruption and price manipulation around the world, Glencore confirmed a poorly kept secret – criminality was a key pillar of the company’s business mode Commodity trading and mining giant Glencore last week admitted…
Digital Profiteers: The digitalisation of the South African welfare state explained Open Secrets TV Who are the digital profiteers lining up at the trough of the South African digital welfare state? Illustrator Brandan Reynolds and Open Secrets’ investigators Abby May and Zen Mathe breakdown the findings of Open Secrets’ investigation, Digital Profiteers: Who Profits Next…
Coming soon on Open Secrets TV… Digital Profiteers Illustrated Date: 20 May 2022 Time: 18:00 (Johannesburg) Where: Open Secrets TV Have you read Open Secrets’ latest investigative report, Digital Profiteers: Who Profits Next from Social Grants? No? Perhaps you’ve planning to get round to it, but life, work and that series you have been bingeing,…
Mudiwa Gavaza speaks to Tabitha Paine, attorney and acting head of legal at Open Secrets, and Thomas Malokotsa from Unpaid Benefits Campaign
Media Statement Civil Society organisations take Financial Sector Regulator to court In December 2021, Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), brought an application in the Gauteng High Court against the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). In the spirit of greater transparency and responsiveness to…
On 29 March 2022, Open Secrets and Black Sash together with over 60 activists hosted a workshop on Digital Profiteering at Community House in Cape Town. In this video Open Secrets’ Investigator, Ra’eesa Pather speaks to one of the workshop participants Feziwe Sigqumo about the digitalisation of the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant system.
Newsletter: April 2022 Nothing is mahala! The same holds true for “free” social media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook – they have turned us into products. We call these category of corporations – digital profiteers. Do you recall how the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) allowed companies like Net1 and CPS to abuse…
What’s at stake in the GovChat vs Meta personal information ‘data war’? Daily Maverick | Abby May and Michael Marchant | 12 April 2022 On 14 March, the Competition Commission of South Africa upheld a complaint by South African tech company GovChat against Meta Platforms Inc and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Facebook. The commission referred the tech giant…
Unaccountable 00031: The National Postponement Authority on High Profile Corruption by Ra’eesa Pather for Open Secrets 4 April 2021 Questionable decision-making, poor leadership and political interference have collapsed public trust in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The current leadership at the authority, lead by Shamila Batohi, has yet to bring about change to address the…
Newsroom Afrika | 15 March 2022 Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, Michael Marchant, speaks to Newzroom Afrika on prosecutions for state capture crimes, and issues in the NPA, Hawks, and the courts. Justice Raymond Zondo releases the third volume of the State Capture report which recommends more than 60 individuals for prosecution. To discuss how…
eNCA Interview with Open Secrets’ Michael Marchant on the Yemen conflict
The High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division: Pretoria has requested the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to end delays in the review application relating to permits enabling weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
SABC The Watchdog: Interview with Michael Marchant Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, speaks to the WatchDog following the public release of Part Two of the State Capture Report.
Monday 24 January 2022 || Civil Society Working Group on State Capture: Statement – Response to the Zondo Commission’s Report We urge the commission not to shy away from making robust recommendations that can act as catalyst for wholesale state reform and will help to ensure that powerful corporations and individuals that have enabled state…
Inside the reign of Bain Financial Mail | Zen Mathe, Investigator at Open Secrets | 13 JANUARY 2022 The consulting firm was present for every step of the dismantling of Sars, from conception, to collusion, to capture. The first report from the Zondo commission into state capture, released on January 4, shines a light on…
Findings against The New Age in the State Capture report The Clement Manyathela Show on 702 | Interview with Ra’eesa Pather, Investigator at Open Secrets | 12 January 2022 Clement speaks to Open Secrets’ investigator, Ra’eesa Pather, as well as Pieter Pretorius from Eskom and former GCIS DG Themba Maseko, as resistors of state capture…
Open Secrets’ Michael Marchant reacts to the first part of the State Capture report, and the findings against PwC and Nkonki’s work at SAA.
Mediated Conversation: Reflection on the State Capture Report SAfm Sunrise | Guests include: Pauli van Wyk, Daily Maverick; Hennie van Vuuren, Open Secrets; and Mzwandile Mbeje, SABC News | 10 January 2022 Stephen Grootes of SAfm Sunrise speaks with Pauli van Wyk (Journalist at Daily Maverick); Hennie van Vuuren (Executive Director of Open Secrets), and…
Zondo: South African Airways, PwC can drag heels no longer The Africa Report | David Whitehouse| 10 January 2022 Publication of the first part of the Zondo Report on state capture has finally prompted South African Airways (SAA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to start facing reality. The first part of the report by…
Thought Leadership: State Capture Report under the spotlight Power 98.7 | In conversation with Mamello Mosiana, Head of Campaigns at Open Secrets | 9 January 2022 Stand-in host Nhlanhla Sehume is in conversation with the head of campaigns, Mamello Mosiana, at non-governmental organisation Open Secrets – which is vocal on accountability for private sector economic…
Pros and cons of Deferred Prosecution Agreements recommended in the State Capture Report Newzroom Afrika | In conversation with Tabitha Paine, Senior Attorney at Open Secrets | 8 January 2022 The state capture commission’s first report was released this week. It includes a recommendation to use deferred prosecution agreements for companies implicated in State Capture.…
Analysing the State Capture Report: Objections to proposed deferred prosecution agreements Radio 786 | In conversation with Michael Marchant, Head of Research at Open Secrets | 7 January 2022 Red flags have been raised about the State Capture Commission’s recommendation that government introduce laws to allow for deferred prosecutions of corporations accused of crimes like…
Discussion | State Capture report hits and misses eNCA | In conversation with Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets | 7 January 2022 Michael Marchant from Open Secrets spoke to eNCA’s Annika Larsen.
Discussion on State Capture Commission Report and insights on the findings: Ra’eesa Pather, Investigator at Open Secrets SABC News | In conversation with Ra’eesa Pather, Investigator at Open Secrets | 7 January 2022 Civil society organization Open Secrets last night hosted a virtual conversation to discuss the State Capture Commission report and its insights on…
Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, on the hits and misses in the state capture report SABC: On Point | In conversation with Michael Marchant, Head of Research at Open Secrets | 7 January 2022 Many stakeholders continue to pore over the contents of the first part of the State Capture report, which…
Ramaphosa’s primary responsibility is to the country, not his political party: Open Secrets SAfm: Update at Noon | In conversation with Hennie van Vuuren, Executive Director at Open Secrets | 5 Januray 2022 The Democratic Alliance has called on law enforcement agencies to immediately act following the release of the first of the three-part State…
Business with Khaya Sithole: Reflections on the State Capture Report – Part 1 Power 98.7 | In conversation with Michael Marchant, Head of Research at Open Secrets | 5 January 2022 Reflections on the State Capture Report with Michael Marchant, Head of Research at Open Secrets.
Suspend Bain & Co, urges Lord Hain in a letter to UK government Daily Maverick | Sasha Planting | 5 January 2022 Suspend Bain & Co, urges Lord Hain in a letter to UK government Management consultancy Bain & Co hoped it had put the sins of State Capture years behind it. But the release of the…
Power Business with Khaya Sithole: Reflections on the State Capture Report – Part 1 5 January 2022 Power Business with Khaya Sithole Khaya Sithole reflects on Part 1 of the State Capture Report with Steven Powell from ENS, Pauli van Wyk from the Daily Maverick and Open Secrets’ Head of Investigations, Michael Marchant.
Ramaphosa’s primary responsibility is to the country, not his political party: Open Secrets 5 January 2022 Update at Noon The Democratic Alliance has called on law enforcement agencies to immediately act following the release of the first of the three-part State Capture report. The DA says now the information is available, recommendations from the report…
5 January 2022 Lester Kiewit talks to Open Secrets’ Ra’eesa Pather
Open Secrets investigation raises red flags around the digitalization of grants process CapeTalk: Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | 29 November 2021 Abby May, an investigations Intern at Open Secrets, speaks to John Maytham about an investigation which highlights the threats to privacy and vulnerable individuals when private companies co-create the digital infrastructure used by the…
Examining the NPA’s delay in prosecuting high-profile cases SABC Morning Live | In conversation with Hennie Van Vuuren, Executive Director of Open Secrets | 7 December 2021 National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Advocate Shamila Batohi says the NPA is not in a crisis and there is no widespread sabotage of the Investigative Directorate (ID) or…
Ciaran Ryan | Moneyweb| 7 December 2021 Who would have thought the Covid-19 pandemic would present a potential gold mine for companies specialising in the harvesting and selling of data? Apple’s market cap, now $2.6 trillion, is up 136% since the onset of Covid. If it were a country, Apple would be the eighth largest…
CPS Social Grants Management Still a Secret | Interview with Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations Radio 786 | 6 December 2021
Open Secrets investigation raises red flags around the digitalization of grants process CapeTalk: Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | 29 November 2021 Abby May, an Investigations Intern at Open Secrets, speaks to John Maytham about an investigation which highlights the threats to privacy and vulnerable individuals when private companies co-create the digital infrastructure used by the…
Open Secrets investigation raises red flags around the digitalization of grants process CapeTalk: Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | 29 November 2021 Abby May, an Investigations Intern at Open Secrets, speaks to John Maytham about an investigation which highlights the threats to privacy and vulnerable individuals when private companies co-create the digital infrastructure used by the…
Open Secrets investigation raises red flags around the digitalization of grants process CapeTalk: Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | 29 November 2022 Abby May, an Investigations Intern at Open Secrets, speaks to John Maytham about an investigation that highlights the threats to privacy and vulnerable individuals when private companies co-create the digital infrastructure used by the…
Newzroom Afrika | 27 November 2021 After President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced social assistance measures to soften the battering from COVID-19, unemployed adults aged 18 to 59 were brought into the social security net for the first time. These new grant beneficiaries were not registered with the SA Social Security Agency, so private partners such as…
Just what is the ‘new Net1’? Financial Mail | Rob Rose | 25 November 2021 Fintech firm Net1 is still trying to shake the image of a company fleecing social grant recipients. But winning back legitimacy isn’t that easy. “Rehabilitation is a journey. There’s been a lot of hurt and a lot of mistrust,” says…
With a new Covid grant, and demand for a basic income grant spiking, companies such as GovChat are getting in on the action. Is SA risking another Net1 debacle?
The investigative report, Digital Profiteers: Who Profits Next from Social Grants, focuses on how the digitalisation of state services offers opportunities for corporations to generate excessive profits from digital systems that can harm vulnerable people.
Financial Mail | 22 November 2021 The FM and Open Secrets on November 25 hosted an online discussion on the dangers of the ‘digital welfare state’ In April 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a raft of social assistance measures to provide relief to struggling South Africans as the economy took a battering from Covid. Among…
The following is a recap of the work we’ve done on the Apartheid banks. Otherwise known as Belgium’s Kredietbank (now known as KBC Group) and its sister bank in Luxembourg (then known as KBL, but changed its name to Quintet Private Bank in 2020 shortly after Open Secrets handed over its docket to the NPA).…
This report reflects the energy and commitment of the Open Secrets team to investigating the powerful and using the law to hold them to account.
Who are the board members and executives at Prasa who enabled and participated in the looting of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa)? This week we turn to Sfiso Buthelezi, a former deputy minister of Finance and current member of parliament whose six years as Prasa’s first board chairperson saw the parastatal procurement process systematically undermined and its coffers drained.
This is the repository of documents cited in the 30th profile of the Unaccountable series which focusses on the role of current member of parliament and former board chair of Prasa, Sfiso Buthelezi.
Cape Talk | 8 September 2021 Transnet and the Special Investigating Unit were on Tuesday granted a preservation order to freeze R4.2billion sitting in bank accounts linked to Chinese company, CRRC E-Loco Supply (CRRC). They supplied Transnet with locomotives between 2011 and 2014. Michael Marchant of Open Secrets speaks to Refilwe Moloto about the significance of the move.
SABC News | 7 September 2021 Open Secret’s investigator Michael Marchant speaks to Vuyo Mvoko about corruption and the private sector.
The Citizen | Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni| 7 September 2021 If National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Arthur Fraser did not solicit an independent medical report on former President Zuma, his medical parole decision is illegal. So says the Democratic Alliance (DA) as well as legal experts who have raised red flags in the former statesman’s successful bid…
Unaccountable 00029 | Roy Moodley- Mr Prasa? By Lucas Nowicki Who are the shady corporate bosses who derailed Prasa? In this instalment of Unaccountable, we shine a light on Roy Moodley, a politically connected businessman whom employees at the state-owned railway company would call ‘Mr Prasa’, according to testimony at the Zondo Commission. For more…
SaferWorld Domestic accountability for international arms transfers: Law, policy and practice 31 August 2021 | Open Secrets and SALC’s legal case to have the Gauteng High Court review the export of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been included in Saferworld’s latest publication, Domestic accountability for international arms transfers: Law, policy and practice.…
Unaccountable Special: The Auditors 16 August 2021 | Mamello Mosiana The ‘Big Four’ audit firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – all play a systemic role in economic crimes and State Capture. The evidence suggests that these firms have prioritised profit over professional duties and the law. Accountability and reform of the industry are…
This profile is on PwC and Nkonki, the auditors that repeatedly gave SAA a clean bill of health while fraud and corruption soared.
26 July 2021 | This is the repository of documents cited in the 28th profile of the Unaccountable series which focusses on the role of PwC and Nkonki as auditors of the national air carrier, SAA.
The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture again reiterates that law enforcement agencies should focus its attention on the individuals and corporations who have either allegedly been complicit in state capture or might have information that can assist the state in challenging the state capture networks.
Daily Maverick | Zukiswa Pikoli | 21 July 2021 Swift and decisive action must be taken to remove and hold to account compromised individuals who remain within key state institutions, say civil society organisations. The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture has called for the accountability of criminals fingered in the State Capture Commission…
ENCA | 20 July 2021 Open Secrets director Hennie Van Vuuren spoke with eTV’s Annika Larsen.
Daily Maverick | Zita Hansungule, Daniel McLaren, Tabitha Paine, Samantha Waterhouse | 19 July 2021 Budget Justice Coalition members are deeply disturbed by the unrest that unfolded across the country over the past few weeks. The violence and destruction are devastating at a time when many in South Africa already face hunger and poverty, made…
This profile is on PwC and Nkonki, the auditors that repeatedly gave SAA a clean bill of health while fraud and corruption soared.
Sunday Times | Franny Rabkiin | 4 July 2021 Retired judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi have challenged the constitutionality of the Judicial Service Commission Act, saying it is unconstitutional in that it allows judicial misconduct complaints against retired judges. “We are aggrieved that we have to be put through a complaint process when we…
News 24 | Jeanette Chabalala | 2 July 2021 Two retired judges, who presided over the Arms Deal Inquiry, have approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to challenge the constitutionality of the Judicial Service Commission Act. Judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi face an investigation for “incapacity, gross incompetence or gross misconduct”. Seriti was…
ENCA | 17 June 2021 South Africa’s sale of weapons to countries actively involved in the war in Yemen could soon come to an end. For more, Annika Larsen speaks to Head of Investigation’s at Open Secrets Michael Marchant. Courtesy #DStv403
Daily Maverick | Abby May| 24 June 2021 With the move of government departments to digitisation, private companies creating the digital infrastructure will have access to millions of South Africans’ data. Many will undoubtedly seek to monetise that access. Abby May is an intern at Open Secrets. In late 2020 South African credit bureau agency Experian…
Unaccountable 00026: Vossloh- The German railway giant that derailed Prasa By Lucas Nowicki In installment 00024 of Unaccountable we focused on middleman Auswell Mashaba and his shelf company Swifambo Rail Leasing, which was used as a front by Vossloh España to secure a lucrative contract with Prasa that resulted in the SOE spending billions on…
James De Villiers | News24 | 9 June 2021 The transparency non-profit organisation, Open Secrets, and the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) last week launched an urgent Gauteng High Court application in Pretoria to review the sale of weapons made in South Africa to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Saudi Arabia and…
Cape Talk | 17 June 2021 Refilwe speaks to Atilla Kisla International criminal justice lawyer at Southern Africa Litigation Centre.
Cape Talk | 17 June 2021 The Gauteng High Court has ruled that the names of companies and entities exporting arms and weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, must now be made known, as these weapons are being used to carry out human atrocities in Yemen.The case was brought by the trustees of the…
Franny Rabkin | Sunday Times | 15 June 2021 Court orders National Conventional Arms Control Committee to provide a list A court on Tuesday ordered the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to provide a list of South African arms companies that have permits to export arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — the…
Karyn Maughan | News 24 | 15 June 2021 Open Secrets and the Southern African Litigation Centre have won a significant first victory in their legal campaign to block arms dealers in South Africa from selling weapons allegedly used against civilians in war-torn Yemen. The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon granted an…
SALC and Open Secrets, will be in the Pretoria high court on Tuesday afternoon over the government-issued permits that allow SA arms companies to export weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Atilla Kisla | Mail & Gaurdian | 7 June 2021 Following illegal and unethical arms trades to countries with very poor human rights records under apartheid, democratic South Africa established a legal framework so that the mistakes of the past would not repeat themselves. But 26 years later, the plan to implement a system that…
IOL | Loyiso Sidimba | 13 June 2021 Johannesburg – The government may be aiding and assisting the commission of an internationally wrongful act by selling millions of weapons worth billions of rands to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) and Open Secrets have accused President Cyril…
The Citizen | Cheryl Kahla | 11 June 2021 The treaty could see fugitive Gupta brothers returning as early as next month. Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola clarified the extradition treaty and mutual agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday. UAE treaty: What you need to know Lack of cooperation from…
10 June 2021 | Radio 786 – 100.4 FM | Non-profit organisation Open Secrets, and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) has launched an urgent application in the North Gauteng High, seeking the names of all permit holders authorised to export arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Since 2017, Saudi Arabia stands accused of…
9 June 2021 | SAFM SUNRISE Guest: Makgala Masiteng – SABC Reporter Guest: Hennie Van Vuuren – Director Of Open Secrets
In this episode Open Secrets Zen Mathe and Mamello Mosiana talk about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the role of South Africa in supplying arms to parties to the conflict, namely Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Human Rights organisations ask the Courts to review decisions to export arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
6 June 2021 | Newzroom Afrika The National Prosecuting Authority has a witness protection programme, where people can even assume a new identity if the situation warrants it. But what about whistleblowers? Are we doing enough to protect them and encourage more people to come forward with allegations of wrongdoing? Joining us is former Government…
Cape Talk | 6 June 2021 Mamello Mosiana – Head of communications and collaboration at Open Secrets speaks to Refilwe Moloto about consultancy firm McKinsey that made millions off their questionable deal with Transnet and Eskom. They have now undertaken to pay back R870million, that they received from Transnet since their contract started in 2005.
City Press | Thamsanqa Malinga | 30 May 2021 The recent financial woes of the governing party in failing to meet its obligations towards staff salaries is an issue whose surface has merely been scratched. Much needs to be interrogated, but the sight of a once-glorious movement becoming cash-strapped does not require us to lift…
ENCA | 27 May 2021 Michael Marchant, a researcher at Open Secrets, spoke with eNCA’s Morena Mothupi.
Newzroom Afrika | 26 May 2021 Newzroom Afrika’s Thabo Mdluli is joined by legal journalist at News24 Karyn Maughan, and Arms Deal whistleblower and Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren to help unpack the Zuma and Thales case.
Unaccountable 00025: The Russian Bank that took Mozambique for a ride By Mamello Mosiana The people of Mozambique have been battered in recent times by devastating cyclones and an increasingly virulent armed insurgency in the North of the country. The backdrop is a country battling state capture. This involves a coterie of corrupt politicians, multinational…
18 May 2021 | Hensoldt, like Rheinmetall, has extensive operations in South Africa. A call on the German government to ensure that German parent companies comply with the country’s ban on the export of arms to Saudi Arabia at all offshore locations. At Hensoldt AG’s Annual General Meeting this year, the civil society organisations Urgewald…
IOL | Loyiso Sidimba | 15 May 2021 JOHANNESBURG – WHISTLEBLOWERS and campaigners against the multibillion-rand arms deal have not given up on justice for taxpayers after the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) confirmed it was investigating complaints against two judges who probed the transaction. Whistleblower Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille wants the…
13 May 2021| Court application by Open Secrets & UBC, represented by CALS, to challenge the appointment process of the Commissioners of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Hosts: Mamello Mosiana, Michael Marchant, Zen Mathe Music: Mello C- Pasikolu (licensed through Creative Commons) Open Secrets Radio is powered by Hindenburg Systems
The Citizen | Bernadette Wicks | 13 May 2021 Tito Mboweni contends that appointments to statutory or public institutions do not always have to follow a public process. Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign is set to square off against Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in the High Court in Pretoria today, over how the…
13 May 2021 Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), have approached the Gauteng High Court to set aside portions of the regulations that were made in terms of section 61(4) of the Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 2017 (“the regulations”), relating to the…
Marianne Tham | Daily Maverick | 12 May 2021 In the aftermath of a North Gauteng High Court finding, judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi will now have to explain why the Arms Procurement Commission overlooked crucial information prior to making findings in 2016 that the arms deal was clean as a whistle. On 7…
Newsroom Afrika | 12 May 2021 In 2011, Judge Willie Seriti, a Supreme Court of Appeal judge, and Judge Hendrick Musi, former Judge President of the Free State High Court, were appointed to chair the Arms Procurement Commission, known as the Seriti Commission. The commission probed allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity in the…
11 May 2021 | Karyn Maughan | News 24 The judges who preside over R150 Million Arms Deal Inquiry, which found no evidence of corruption in the multibillion-rand deal, are now facing and investigation for “incapacity, gross incompetence or gross misconduct”. Judicial Service Commission (JSC) secretary Sello Chiloane has confirmed that the JSC’s conduct committee…
11 May 2021 | In a letter to the Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets, dated 07 May 2021, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo (as acting chair of the Judicial Conduct Committee) has affirmed the seriousness of the organisations complaint to the Judicial Service Commission. His letters confirms that the matter has now been referred…
11 May 2021 | Media Statement | Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets | On 11 August 2020, non-profit organisations Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets submitted a complaint to the Chairperson of the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the Judicial Service Commission). The detailed complaint focused on the High Court’s damning judgment which finds that…
Newsroom Afrika | 11 May 2021 Paul Holden, Director of Shadow World Investigations speaks about the Seriti commission of inquiry into the arms deal.
SABC News | 4 May 2021 Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations have written to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) demanding a response about a complaint they filed in August 2020 asking the JSC to look into the conduct of Judge Willie Seriti and Judge Hendrick Musi regarding the Arms Deal Inquiry. The two organizations…
The New Arab | Suraya Dadoo | 3 May 2021 As the country stood on the brink of democracy in November 1993, Nelson Mandela proudly promised that in the new South Africa human rights would be the “light that guides our foreign affairs.” However, decades later, South African-made weaponry has been deeply involved in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.…
23 April 2021 On the 11th of August 2020, Shadow World Investigations (“SWI”) and Open Secrets submitted a complaint to the Chairperson of the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the Judicial Service Commission) in terms of Section 14 of the Judicial Services Act 9 of 1994, regarding the conduct of Judge Willie Seriti and Judge Hendrick…
Cape Talk | Barbara Friedman | 29 April 2021 Hennie Van Vuuren, the CEO of Open Secrets speaks to Refilwe Moloto about the appearance of the ruling party president, Cyril Ramaphosa at the Zondo Commission.
Unaccountable 00024: Auswell ‘tall trains’ Mashaba: The middleman who derailed Prasa By Lucas Nowicki Who are the shady middlemen who derailed Prasa? We turn our attention to Auswell ‘tall trains’ Mashaba, whose business Swifambo Rail Leasing is one of the locomotives of corruption at Prasa. In last week’s instalment of Unaccountable, we discussed the politicians, board members…
Aljazeera | Michael Marchant & Zen Mathe | 19 April 2021 The South African state has abandoned its commitment to human rights to profit from weapons deals. In so doing, it has become complicit in war crimes in Yemen. Democratic South Africa’s commitment to human rights has never been solely inward-looking. Its constitutional order was…
Unaccountable 00023: How Prasa was looted and left for scrap By Lucas Nowicki The link between corruption and lived experience is nowhere more obvious than the erosion of passenger train services in South Africa. Prasa’s service has declined so dramatically over the past decade that the majority of working-class South Africans who once relied on…
Open Secrets correspondence with Tongaat Hulett regarding audit failure and fraud revealed in Tongaat’s 2018/2019 Annual Report.
Unaccountable 00022: The Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation: China Inc boards the State Capture train By Hlohi Ndlovu Where is the Transnet loot and why hasn’t it been recovered? Given the government’s recently announced austerity measures targeting social spending, this question demands an urgent answer. Why have institutions such as Transnet thus far largely failed…
Defenceweb | 25 March 2021 | Smoke is rising from another apparent fire demanding the attention of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, this time involving Denel associate company Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM). He has been asked for details of South Africa’s alleged involvement in the ongoing Yemen humanitarian crisis by Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentarian Michele…
Sunday Times Live |Suraya Dadoo | 21 March 2021 | As the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) continues to approve weapons sales to countries engaged in war crimes in Yemen, SA’s arms industry bears a shocking similarity to its apartheid-era past. A new investigation by South African civil society group Open Secrets has laid…
Open Guv Hub | 19 March 2021 | The new Biden administration represents an opportunity for governance and anti-corruption reform in the United States, both to undo the damage done under the Trump era and to build our systems back better and with more resilience. To make the most of this opportunity, we can learn…
Salaamedia | 19 March 2021 Is South Africa putting profits before #Yemeni lives in Yemen’s civil war? Zen Mathe, Researcher at Open Secrets, takes a closer look. #IftarDrive #Ramadan
Power Talk | 19 March | In this next segment, we look at a piece co-written by Zen Mathe which reports that South Africa has abandoned its commitment to human rights in exchange for the chance to profit from weapon deals. This in turn has made us complicit in war crimes in Yemen. Lukhona Mnguni…
Newzroom Afrika | 10 March 2021 Civil society groups in South Africa have published a joint statement in support of the State Capture Inquiry chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. The organisations, say they are against attacks on the judiciary by politicians who do not produce evidence to back their claims. Naushina Rahim has…
Radio Islam International | 10 March 2021 | Civil Society organisation Open Secrets says with just a few months left before the Zondo Commission concludes and reports on its findings, there needs to be support for the inquiry into state capture. Some of South Africa’s foremost civil society organisations have come out strongly in support…
Daily Maverick and Open Secrets | 3 March 2021 | It may seem to many people in South Africa that what is happening in war-torn Yemen is a tragedy unfolding far away without any direct connection to us, and with little we can do. This is not true. This report reveals that, since the war…
Civil Society Working Group on State Capture | Maverick Citizen | Some of South Africa’s foremost civil society organisations have come out strongly in support of the State Capture Commission and have insisted that former president Jacob Zuma abide by the law. The 13 civil society organisations released a joint statement overnight stating that the…
Power FM | 8 March 2021 | Khaya Sithole is in conversation with journalist Karyn Maughan, author James-Brent Styan, director of Open Secrets Hennie Van Vuuren about the Steinhoff saga.
Newzroom Afrika | 7 March 2021 | An explosive report by Open Secrets has revealed that when civil war broke out in Yemen in early 2015, South African arms companies exported weapons to Saudi Arabi and the UAE worth billions of rands. Newzroom Afrika speaks to Open Secrets researcher, Zen Mathe and human rights lawyer,…
etv | 4 March 2021 | An investigation has lifted the lid on South Africa’s possible involvement, in gross human rights violations in Yemen. Details are contained in a new report called “Profiting from Misery”, put together by the NPO, Open Secrets. It has reportedly found that state-owned arms manufacturer, Denel and others, sold weapons…
Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | Cape Talk | 5 March 2021 Michael Marchant of Open Secrets talks to Refilwe Moloto about an investigation that shows South African arms companies are selling weapons to those waging war on Yemenis for nearly a decade.
SABC News | 5 March 2021| A new Open Secrets investigative report, Profiting from Misery: South Africa’s Complicity in War Crimes in Yemen reveals the South African arms companies that have cashed in on the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates two central parties to the Yemeni conflict. For more,…
Salaamedia | 4 March 2021| Salaamedia’s Inayet Wadee speaks to Open Secrets’ researcher Michael Marchant about the role of South African and German arms corporations in the Yemen war. Read Profiting from Misery: South Africa’s Complicity in War Crimes in Yemen
New Open Secrets report says South Africans should demand an end to the flow of weapons to this tragedy.
The Voice of the Cape | 3 March 2021 | Since the outbreak six years ago of regionalised war in Yemen that has resulted in humanitarian crisis, South African arms companies have profited from the sale of weapons to parties central to the conflict.This is according to investigations by NPO Open Secrets.Online for comment is…
Weapons produced in South Africa are awash in Yemen and being used by numerous parties in that war, says a report by Open Secrets.
On the 3rd of March 2021, Open Secrets will be launching a new investigative report containing devastating findings about private sector profiteering. To receive news of the live launch and the report, sign up to our mailing list here
Newzroom Afrika | 23 February 2021| Pre-trial proceedings for the Arms Deal corruption trial are expected to be heard in the KwaZulu-Natal high court in Pietermaritzburg today. A trial date is likely to be set for one of South Africa’s longest-running legal cases. Former president Jacob Zuma and co accused, French arms manufacturer Thales face…
Unaccountable 00021: Bain and Company- The KGB of Consulting By Zen Mathe Bain & Company is one of several powerful multinational corporations at the centre of corruption and State Capture in South Africa. Bain enabled the wrecking of the South African Revenue Service, contributing to economic hardship for all South Africans. Placing profit over principle,…
Daily Maverick | Sasha Planting | 16 February 2021 | With SA’s Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba) in a full-blown governance crisis and the Auditing Profession Amendment Bill still wending its way through Parliament, two of the firms involved in SA’s gigantic accounting scandals are attempting to make right for past failings. On Monday,…
Mozambique has been battered by devastating cyclones and an armed insurgency. The backdrop to this is a state battling State Capture. This involves a coterie of corrupt politicians. However, at the centre of one of Africa’s biggest corruption scandals is a Swiss banking behemoth – Credit Suisse.
Mark Heywood | Daily Maverick | 2 February 2021 The latest scandal concerning the Gauteng Education Department’s R431-million expenditure on ‘deep-cleaning and decontaminating’ schools is symptomatic of a deeper problem: we live in a land of hopeless impunity for maladministration and corruption. It was the year Covid-19 upended our lives. But 2020 was also characterised by…
Daily Maverick | Ruan Jooste | 25 January 2021 | The Big Four auditing firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – played a systemic role in financial crimes across the globe and evidence suggests that these firms have prioritised profit over professional duties and the law. Accountability reforms are around the corner, but will…
Power FM | 19 January 2021 | In this conversation Thabiso Kotane is joined by Hennie van Vuuren, Director at Open Secrets and Lebohang Pheko, the Executive Director at the Trade Colleactive and talk about corporate capture, explore its effects of and look at this stifles the building and functioning of a capable state in…
SAFM Sunrise | 18 January 2021 | Guest: Karam Singh- Corruption Watch Head of legal and investigations. Guest: Professor Peter Goss – Corporate Governance Advisor Guest: Hennie van Vuuren – Director Open Secrets
Business Live| Natasha Marrian|14 January 2021 | Civil society bodies push for corporations implicated in state capture to be more thoroughly grilled by Zondo. Are private corporations being treated with kid gloves by the commission of inquiry into state capture? Sections of civil society say the impression is being created that the commission, chaired by…
Daily Maverick | Michael Marchant |15 December 2020 | The Zondo Commission has a vital role to play in advancing the public’s understanding of private corporations’ role in State Capture. It is the commission’s duty and well within its powers to compel banking executives, lawyers, consultants and auditors to appear before it and answer questions…
Newzroom Afrika | 16 December 2020 | More than 20 civil society organisations have written an open letter to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, highlighting a list of witnesses they believe should be prioritised during the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. They say the commission should use its full power to compel them to…
Babelegi loses Appeal in the Competition Appeal Court in a matter involving the excessive pricing of face masks during Covid- 19 The Health Justice Initiative (hji) and Open Secrets welcome the news from the Competition Appeal Court (CAC), in a judgement dated 18 November 2020, that the appeal by BABELEGI WORKWEAR AND INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES CC…
Unaccountable 00019: IRBA- Soft Touch Regulator in Turmoil By Michael Marchant It has often appeared that the desire of the regulatory board for auditors to protect its members overshadows its responsibility to inform the public about dodgy auditors The “Big Four” audit firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – are regularly implicated in audit…
Tumisang Ndlovu speaks to Michael Marchant, researcher – Investigations and Advocacy – Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign about the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) commissioner appointments process.
3 November| YouTube | Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC), represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) have applied to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on an urgent basis to ensure a transparent process to select the new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).…
27 October 2020 | Newzroom Afrika | Civil Society organizations Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign, have applied to the High Court on an urgent basis to call for a transparent process in the selection of a new Commissioner of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign (UBC) apply to court to prevent the appointments process for the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) from proceeding in secret. 27 October 2020 Today, after 18 months of failing to get a response from the Minister of Finance, civil society organisations Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign,…
25 October 2020| Daily Maverick | Zukiswa Pikoli | More than 20 civil society organisations have written an open letter to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo highlighting a list of witnesses they believe should be prioritised during the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, saying that the commission should use its full power to compel…
8 October 2020 | Biz News | In this BizNews noon webinar (Thursday 8 October), veteran broadcaster Tim Modise is joined by Public Service Commissioner Michael Seloane and Mamello Mosiana of Open Secrets to discuss efforts to promote professional ethics in the face of collusive networks of corruption within the public sector.
1 October 2020 | Daily Maverick | Mamello Mosiana and Michael Marchant | Banks are an essential cog in a global money-laundering architecture that enables the corrupt and criminal to disguise and hide the proceeds of their crimes. New revelations from the US reveal the depths of the problem of banks laundering money and the…
Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto | 17 September 2020 | Let’s not forget that state capture is so much bigger and Zuma and that this corruption doesn’t exist in a vacuum – the private sector has been there every step of the way. Michael Marchant from Open Secrets in conversation with Refilwe.
Unaccountabe 00018: KPMG – At the heart of state capture By Mamello Mosiana The Big Four auditing firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – played a systemic role in economic crimes and State Capture. The evidence suggests that these firms have prioritised profit over professional duties and the law. Accountability and reform of the…
World Peace Foundation, 8 September 2020. The podcast series “African Voices, African Arguments” features African scholars, writers, policy makers and activists on issues of peace, justice and democracy, and is produced by World Peace Foundation and presented in partnership with African Arguments and The Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University. Alex de Waal discusses…
Justice for apartheid economic crime: Start with the bankers Today many civil society organisations jointly call on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to crack down on corporations who assisted the apartheid state and profited from economic crimes under apartheid. To date they have escaped any accountability for their crimes in supporting and sustaining apartheid –…
Michael Marchant | Business Live | 27 August 2020 | Nearly three years after Steinhoff’s finances were exposed as a sham and the company lost nearly all its value overnight, it is offering shareholders and former partners a settlement agreement. Facing legal claims for over R130bn, Steinhoff’s management is proposing a R16bn settlement, payable in…
Unaccountable 00017: EY – incompetent, negligent or criminal? By Michael Marchant The ‘Big Four’ audit firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – all play a systemic role in economic crimes and State Capture. The evidence suggests that these firms have prioritised profit over professional duties and the law. Accountability and reform of the industry…
Open Secrets & Shadow World Investigations | Daily Maverick | 20 August 2020 | Our complaint has been submitted in line with the Judicial Services Act which allows for complaints to be filed where judges are guilty of either ‘gross misconduct’ or ‘gross incompetence’, among other things. We have submitted a complaint to the Chief…
Media Release | 19 August 2020 |hji and Open Secrets Health Justice Initiative (hji) and Open Secrets admitted as joint amici (friends of the court) in Competition Appeal Court – involving Dis-Chem & the Competition Commission (pricing of face masks for COVID-19) On 11 August 2020, the Health Justice Initiative (hji) and Open Secrets…
Paul Holden | Daily Maverick | 18 August 2020 | The crisis of State Capture and the epidemic of corruption that undermines Covid-19 relief and mitigation efforts, find their roots in the wholesale destruction of the capacity of the state to tackle corruption lest those capacities uncover the full rot of the Arms Deal. South…
CFO Talks Podcast | 17 August 2020 | A recent report released by Open Secrets provides fascinating insight to financial crimes in South Africa’s private and public sector. Open Secrets’ researcher Michael Marchant speaks to CFO Talks.
Unaccountable 00016: Deloot – How Deloitte gets away with it By Michael Marchant The ‘Big Four’ audit firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – all play a systemic role in economic crimes and State Capture. The evidence suggests that these firms have prioritised profit over professional duties and the law. Accountability and reform of…
Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations submit complaint to the Judicial Conduct Committee of the JSC.
Open Secrets researcher Michael Marchant speaks to Cape Talk’s Lester Kiewit
Unaccountable 00015: Arms Deal – The BAE Corruption Bombshell By Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations The Arms Deal was never only about Jacob Zuma and his sweetheart relationship with French arms company Thales. We now have even more proof that it was rotten to the core and demands accountability. It is not often that…
SA FM | Viewpoint | 8 July 2020 | The Auditor General recently released a report and it tells of gross financial mismanagement in the public sector. Now the public sector is bound to attract attention because it runs on taxpayer’s money. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the same unscrupulous way don’t exist in…
Lack of independence, poor accountability and a culture of silence are some of the issues plaguing the auditing profession globally.
Ciaran Ryan | Moneyweb | 3 July 2020 | A new report by Open Secrets puts them back in the crosshairs. Of the roughly 1 000 people attending the virtual release of the latest Open Secrets report titled The Auditors, a good number were likely from the accounting profession. They must have been squirming in…
Radio 786 | 3 July 2020 | South Africa’s top four auditing companies have been labelled as a cartel. This comes as all four of the firms have been exposed and implicated in audit failure and corrupt dealing. In a special report by Open Secrets titled ‘Corporations and Economic Crime Report’ – it details how…
Sandisiwe Shoba | Daily Maverick | 2 July 2020 | Lack of independence, poor accountability and a culture of silence are some of the issues plaguing the auditing profession globally. A new report by non-profit, Open Secrets, shows how cracks in the system have caused a credibility crisis in the industry and why this is…
While the economic impact of Covid-19 will impact KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young (EY) like much of the private sector, they are cushioned by years of sustained and avaricious profit-taking.
Unaccountable 00014 | BAE Systems – (Profit) Before Anything Else By Meghan Samaai This is an instalment in Open Secrets’ series detailing BAE Systems’ network of middlemen and agents who were paid generously in return for their political connections and influence during South Africa’s 1999 Arms Deal. This week, we turn our focus from the…
Unaccountable 00013 | Fana Hlongwane – Agent of BAE Systems By Meghan Samaai This is the second in a three-part Open Secrets series detailing the lucrative relationship between BAE Systems and its covert international network of middlemen. As we saw in Unaccountable 00012, BAE, like many European arms corporations looking to profit from South Africa’s…
Justice for Ahmed Timol and other apartheid victims Press Statement by the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice The South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ) notes with deep concern the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that it does not intend to pursue charges against two apartheid Security Branch police officers, Seth Sons…
Zukiswa Pikoli | Maverick Citizen | 19 June 2020 | “In South Africa, the struggle against State Capture and corruption remains part of the struggle for human rights and social justice – we will work hard to ensure that institutions like the Zondo Commission are effective,” insists the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture.…
Unaccountable 00012 | John Bredenkamp – Agent of BAE Systems By Meghan Samaai 18 June 2020 This week, Open Secrets continues to profile the corporations and individuals implicated in corruption in the 1999 Arms Deal but yet to be held to account. The European arms corporations that profited from the deal used a similar modus…
Mamello Mosiana | Daily Maverick | 17 June 2020 | While few immediately associate youth issues with pensions, the reality is that many young people actively participate in and even depend on the pensions industry. This includes their participation in the ongoing struggle of millions to access more than R42-billion in pension benefits owed to…
16 June 2020 | Mamello Mosiana | While few immediately associate youth issues with pensions, the reality is that many young people both actively participate in, and depend on, the pensions industry. This includes their participation in the ongoing struggle of millions to access over R42 billion in pension benefits owed to individuals and families,…
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Business Live | 11 June 2020 | Questionable appointments, or failure to appoint people, remain a blot on the finance minister’s copybook. It raises the question: has he lost interest? Tito Mboweni is a politician wrapped in contradiction. He clearly thrives on the warm affirmation he elicits from his 778,000 Twitter followers. He knows how…
Geraldine Frieslaar and Hennie van Vuuren| Daily Maverick | 5 June 2020| Good news and glimmers of hope are in short supply these days. This is perhaps all the more reason to take note of a recent precedent-setting court judgement. In the past week, feisty pint-sized civil society organisations prevailed against the mighty South African…
In a landmark ruling, the SCA set aside a High Court judgment denying SA History Archive access to documents of suspected apartheid-era financial crimes
Neroli Price | Maverick Life | 29 May 2020 These podcasts pay homage to two women who stood up for what they believed in and paid with their life for uncovering the truth. Dulcie September and Daphne Caruana Galizia were from different countries and different eras, but they both stood up for what they believed…
Dear Judge Zondo, RE: State Capture Commission of Enquiry Hearings During Covid-19 We write to you as concerned members of the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture, which comprises more than twenty civil society organisations. In February 2020, we presented an Agenda for Action to the Commission, which is based on detailed submissions made…
Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa We, the undersigned organisations, commend you for the decisive action taken over the last few weeks in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. We note the efforts of the state in placing the health and wellbeing of people at the forefront of decision-making. However, we are acutely aware of the dire financial…
Sifiso Zulu |Eyewitness News | 23 May 2020 | JOHANNESBURG – Civil society organisations have written to President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for transparency in the distribution of COVID-19 relief funds. The Ahmed Khathrada Foundation is one of several groups that raised concerns about potential corrupt activities and the handling of the money in government departments…
Daily Maverick | 22 May 2020 | In this letter to the president, organisations raise concerns about corruption during the Covid-19 crisis. Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa We, the undersigned organisations, commend you for the decisive action taken over the last few weeks in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. We note the efforts of the state…
Unaccountable 00011: Thales – How to buy a country By Meghan Samaai This week Open Secrets publishes the second in a series of profiles on the corporations and middlemen implicated in the multibillion-dollar Arms Deal of the late 1990s. This week we focus on the company at the heart of Zuma’s Arms Deal corruption scandal…
10 May 2020 | You may be facing hardship but what if you’re owed money? Michael Marchant of Open Secrets of tells me there’s R43b in retirement funds owing to 5m beneficiaries & they don’t know about it. Find out how you can claim in this podcast.
Michael Marchant | Daily Maverick | 8 May 2020 | In the context of a strained fiscus and a dysfunctional social security agency – freeing up private assets that are owed to poor and vulnerable individuals could also go a long way to supporting the increase in social welfare grants. It is in this context…
Unaccountable 00010: Jacob Zuma – Comrade in Arms By Meghan Samaai and Hennie van Vuuren 6 May 2020 This week Open Secrets publishes the first of a number of profiles on the corporations and middlemen implicated in the multibillion-dollar Arms Deal of the late 1990s. None of these companies has been held to account. The…
Open Secrets and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies | 29 April 2020 | Open Secrets and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) share a common goal of holding businesses accountable for their complicity in crimes against humanity which includes the crime of apartheid. On 27 April 2018, CALS and Open Secrets laid a…
Unaccountable 00009: McKinsey – Profit over Principle By Mamello Mosiana Big consulting firms take no credit and they accept no blame. This philosophy has enabled McKinsey & Company to profit with ease from work with authoritarian regimes, troubled businesses and corrupt state-owned enterprises. In South Africa, their work at Eskom and Transnet on some of…
Statement – United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner | GENEVA | 27 April 2020 | OECD Member States should consider establishing a mechanism to prevent conflict of interest of their National Contact Points (NPC’s) corporate review process to strengthen the procedure and its credibility. Conflicts of interest must be prevented in order…
Media Statement | C-19 People’s Coaltion | 26 March 2020 We, as civic organisations, trade unions, organisations of informal workers, faith-based organisations, NGOs and community structures in South Africa, are concerned about the emerging conditions for COVID-19 lockdown in our country. We see military tanks and guns rolling into our communities, but we do not…
Media Statement | C19 People’s Coalition | 24 March 2020 A call for social solidarity in South Africa We, as civic organisations, trade unions, organisations of informal workers, faith-based organisations and community structures in South Africa, call on all people, every stakeholder and sector, to contain infection, reduce transmission and mitigate the social and political…
Unaccountable 00008: FNB & Standard Bank – Estina’s Banks By Michael Marchant The infamous Estina Vrede Dairy Project was supposed to direct public funds to ‘empower’ indigent Free State farmers and develop local agriculture. Instead, almost all of the money was looted to benefit the Gupta enterprise. This week Open Secrets focuses on two of…
Naushina Rahim | News24 | 18 March 2020 The reality of the modern globalised and financialised world is that corruption on a grand scale, along with organised crime and state capture, is enabled by skilled professionals, including bankers, lawyers, accountants and consultants writes Naushina Rahim ‘An Agenda for Action’ was submitted almost a month ago…
Hennie van Vuuren | Financial Mail | 12 March 2020 Last week, lawyer Robert Appelbaum floated the idea of an amnesty for perpetrators of state capture. It’s a short-sighted idea, designed to appease the powerful and corrupt, says Open Secrets’ Hennie van Vuuren In the home of Joburg-based corporate lawyer Robert Appelbaum hangs a portrait…
Unaccountable 00007: HSBC – The World’s Oldest Cartel By Mamello Mosiana If Transnet was a golden goose for the Gupta family and their associates, then global banking giant HSBC played the role of tending their illicit nest eggs. This week Open Secrets examines the role of a key global enabler in the State Capture network.…
This investigative report shows that the systems that enable grand corruption and state capture are global in nature, and that private sector elites are central to the problem.
Estelle Ellis | Daily Maverick | 3 March 2020 The Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday heard the appeal by the SA History Archive Trust against a ruling that will allow the SA Reserve Bank to keep records of significant fraud, corruption and gold smuggling under the apartheid government a secret. In the latest chapter…
We, the undersigned organisations and individuals committed to justice for historical crimes and social justice in South Africa write in support of the South African History Archive. On Tuesday 03 March 2020 it faces the next round in an epic battle against the South African Reserve Bank in the Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal. This…
Ilham Rahoot |Mail & Guardian | 21 February 2020 | The floor has been reopened. The past two weeks’ furore over FW de Klerk’s denial and hasty withdrawal of his statement that “the system of apartheid is not a crime against humanity”, as well as the inquest into activist Neil Aggett’s murder in prison, have…
State Capture and corruption go hand-in-hand with inequality and poverty
Cape Talk | 20 February 2020 | Listening to the testimony of bankers before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture, you might believe they were unwitting victims of the Guptas and acted quickly and virtuously to throttle their corrupt ways by closing their bank accounts in 2016. It turns out they…
Civil society working group submits recommendations to Zondo Commission
Unaccountable 00006: Nedbank and the Bank of Baroda — Banking on State Capture By Michael Marchant Who laundered money for the Gupta acolytes and used the opportunity to cash in on State Capture? A new investigative report, ‘The Enablers’, co-authored by Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations, details the role of bankers, accountants, consultants and…
More than 20 civil society groups have submitted their recommendations to the Zondo commission on how to reform the state and private sector in the wake of state capture.
Christi Nortier | Daily Maverick | 19 February 2020| Civil society organisations have been making submissions to the Zondo Commission for the past year. The Civil Society Working Group publicly launched a joint statement that was presented to the commission this week. It summarises their recommended strategies to ensure that State Capture does not continue.…
Lloyd Gedye | New Frame | 21 February 2020 | The South African History Archive’s battle with the South African Reserve Bank to access information pertaining to alleged financial crimes will go to the Supreme Court of Appeal. What can the South African Reserve Bank’s archive of records tell South Africans about apartheid-era economic crime?…
Newzroom Afrika | 12 February 2020 | Newzroom Afrika speaks to Open Secrets’ researcher Mamello Mosiana on Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations new report, The Enablers: the bankers laws and accountants that cashed in on state capture.
Ciaran Ryan | Moneyweb | 10 February 2020 | Listening to the testimony of bankers before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture, you might believe they were unwitting victims of the Guptas and acted quickly and virtuously to throttle their corrupt ways by closing their bank accounts in 2016. It turns…
Jacob Rooi | Rapport/City Press | 10 February 2020 | It’s not only Jacob Zuma who needs to account for his alleged role in state capture, but also the bankers and auditors who made the shenanigans possible. This is according to Andrew Feinstein and Hennie van Vuuren, whose organisations Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigation…
Yolandi Groenewald | Vrye Weekblad | 7 February 2020 | Verskeie vooraanstaande ondernemings het baie om te verduidelik oor hoe hulle staatskaping aangehelp het, blyk uit ’n verslag wat vandeesweek bekendgestel is. YOLANDI GROENEWALD was by die bekendstelling daarvan TERWYL staatskaping in die middel van die vorige dekade op sy ergste gewoed het, het ’n…
Jessica Bezuidenhout | Daily Maverick | 7 February 2020 | It’s the worst-kept secret and the most ill-explored story of State Capture: The role played by South African banks. Now, for the first time, a comprehensive report has been handed to the State Capture Commission calling for some banks whose fingerprints are all over tainted…
Why Zondo must shift focus to the private sector if at least some of the billions stolen in state capture are to be recovered, and if transgressors are to be caught and punished Business Live | 6 February 2020 | By: Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations In many ways, the Estina dairy farm near…
Co-authored by Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations, The Enablers investigative report, explores the largely overlooked yet extensive evidence of the role of the private sector “enablers” in state capture. The Enablers focuses on the role of banks, accounting firms, consultants and lawyers in facilitating criminal conduct that formed part of the state capture enterprise.…
Mark Heywood, Estelle Ellis, Zukiswa Pikoli and Anso Thom| Maverick Citizen | 28 January 2020 | One of the unique features of South Africa’s Constitution is the role that it assigns to citizens in ensuring accountable government. We are a ‘participatory democracy’, one where active citizens play a role in ensuring that Parliament and the…
Unaccountable 00005: National Conventional Arms Control Committee – handmaiden to human rights abuse? By Caryn Dolley and Zen Mathe South Africa’s arms trade regulator has failed in its mandate to monitor the export of weapons to countries that, among other things, abuse human rights, or wage war against their own citizens. This begs the question,…
After hounding out the whistleblower who exposed Liberty Life’s disastrous pension fund cancellations programme, the insurer has sat on its hands. It is extraordinary to see how pension industry insiders leap to defend insurance behemoth Liberty Life for its scandalous handling of the unlawful cancellation of hundreds of pension funds. A recent investigative report by…
Unaccountable 0004: Rheinmetall Denel Munition: Murder and mayhem in Yemen By Zen Mathe & Caryn Dolley Companies with South African links have been allowed to supply Saudi Arabia and its allies with weapons — despite the humanitarian destruction the war in Yemen has wrought. Yemen is at the epicentre of a regionalised civil war. Over…
GroundUp | Ciaran Ryan | 16 January 2019 | “This may seem small compared to the billions of unclaimed assets, but it is always nice to see a direct impact” It’s nice to share good news every now and again. Late last year we published two stories (here and here) on R42 billion in unclaimed pensions owed…
Unaccountable 00003: Captured Regulator?- The FSCA and Dube Tshidi By Michael Marchant Open Secrets | Daily Maverick | 3 December 2019 In part two of the Open Secrets Unaccountable series, we profiled the conduct of Liberty Group in the incorrect cancellation of hundreds of pension funds when they still held more than R100 million owed…
Christi Nortier | Maverick Citizen | 29 November 2019 | Every Friday for the past decade, Sphiwo William Casiwe has made his way from his home in Khayelitsha to the local activist hub, the Isivivana Centre, for a meeting with fellow ex-mineworkers. He clutches his satchel as he hails taxis and navigates pavements. He rests…
Unaccountable 00002: Liberty- Profit over Pensioners By Michael Marchant More than 16 million South Africans contribute to a pension fund, most of which are run by financial behemoths like Liberty. They do so in the hope of a decent dignified life in retirement, and to ensure their dependants will be paid if they die. While…
Ciaran Ryan | GroundUp | 26 November 2019 R19 billion owed to beneficiaries in metal industry More than half the unclaimed benefits of R42 billion owed to roughly 4.2 million former workers are bottled up in just two trade union-affiliated pension schemes. This is one of the findings in a recent report into unclaimed benefits…
Black Sash’s Khuluma on the 21st November 2019 was a conversation with Valencia Talene (Corruption Watch), Tracy Ledger (Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) and Naushina Rahim (Open Secrets), where they discussed State Capture: Implications for governance and leadership of the SCA ruling ordering Cash Paymaster Services to pay back 316 million to SASSA.
Unaccountable 00001: Dame Margaret Hodge MP – a very British apartheid profiteer By Open Secrets Open Secrets | Daily Maverick | 20 November 2019 Margaret Hodge has clothed herself in the claim that she has dedicated her life to fighting racism – that her very ‘being’ was anti-racist, as she said in March 2019. The…
Ciaran Ryan | GroundUp | 19 November 2019 | A campaign to reclaim billions of rands in unclaimed benefits is about to kick into high gear. The Unclaimed Benefits Committee (UBC), representing a group of claimants, and non-profit organisation Open Secrets, are planning to lobby Parliament. “We will also be calling for a boycott of…
Weekend Breakfast with Refiloe Mpakanyane | 702 | 16 november 2019 | Senior Researcher at Open Secrets, Michael Marchant unpacks Open Secrets’ report looking in to the saga behind the FSCA’s unclaimed pension funds which is reportedly nearing R50 Billion now.
Lotus FM | Newsbreak | 13 November 2019 | SABC News and Current Affairs — By Newsbreak Producer Hoossen Ebrahim – Non-profit organisation “Open Secrets” has written to the Finance Minister to investigate their report which found over 42-billion-rand worth of unpaid benefits of pension funds – still under the control of private administrators. The…
Marianne Thamm | Daily Maverick | 10 November 2019 The R42-billion in unpaid benefits owed to more than four million South African pensioners is ‘a fundamental failure’ of public interest by state regulators and pension fund administrators, a year-long investigation by Open Secrets has concluded. Open Secrets researchers Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Leila Khan and…
Weekend Breakfast with Africa Melane | Cape Talk | 9 November 2019 | This is the 3rd and final installment of a conversation which this show has been having about unpaid pension schemes in South Africa. Around R42 Billion is sitting in pension schemes which are administered in South Africa. These benefits have been due…
Ruan Jooste | Daily Maverick | 7 November 2019 | There is a mountain of money, R42bn to be exact, sitting in unclaimed benefit schemes out there, just sitting there, getting fatter, which means money for jam for the fund managers, but doesn’t afford any jam to the estimated four million people who own this…
Sarah Smit | Mail & Guardian | 5 November 2019 | An “angry, distrustful and even vengeful woman”. This is how whistleblower Rosemary Hunter was described in an affidavit to the high court by her one-time boss, erstwhile Financial Services Board (FSB) chief executive Dube Tshidi. The former deputy registrar of pensions can laugh it…
While politics continues to focus the public’s attention, many may be losing out on their pensions. The network is joined by Open Secrets’ Investigator Michael Marchant to discuss this matter. Courtesy #DStv403
Weekend Breakfast with Africa Melane | 702 | 26 October 2019 | Whistle blower Rosemary Hunter faced massive opposition when she called out her colleagues at the Financial services board for irregularities relating to cancelled pension schemes. As we stand, there is R42 billion in benefits is owed to over 4 million pensioners and pension…
Pension fund industry continues to profit from the R42-billion owed to the four million South Africans still waiting to be paid their pensions.
ENCA | 24 October 2019 | JOHANNESBURG – More than four million people are apparently waiting for pension payouts. Non-profit organisation Open Secrets said these benefits amount to more than R42-billion. Thomas Malokotsa is still waiting for benefits from his deceased father’s pension fund, more than 30 years after his death. Malokotsa joined the Unpaid Benefits Campaign…
OFM | 24 October 2019 More than four million people are apparently waiting for pension payouts. Non-profit organisation Open Secrets said these benefits amount to more than R42-billion. Thomas Malokotsa is still waiting for benefits from his deceased father’s pension fund, more than 30 years after his death. Malokotsa joined the Unpaid Benefits Campaign in…
The massive theft of pensions should be called a crime, but because it has been perpetrated by corporate South Africa, it is put down to regulatory failure.
Carin Smith | fin 24 | 23 October 2019 | A new investigative report released by advocacy group Open Secrets on Wednesday evening aims to put pressure on authorities to hold accountable those who wrongly deregistered a large number of pension funds, affecting thousands of people. According to the report, entitled The Bottom Line, Who Profits…
22 October 2019 | SABC News | Tonight we look at an explosive new report on pension money in South Africa. Specifically unclaimed funds that could help millions of poor people. It will be released by the advocacy group, Open Secrets, on Wednesday. But we can bring you this exclusive, early look tonight. The report…
Azarrah Karim | 12 October 2019 | While the state capture commission of inquiry delves deeper and deeper into the web of capture, sourcing the culprits between factional battles, those who were most affected by the crimes believe they are being sidelined. The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture held a people’s hearing at the…
Zukiswa Pikoli | 13 October 2019 | The People’s Hearing into State Capture took place at Constitution Hill’s Women’s Jail at the weekend. The hearing was civil society’s version of the State Capture commission of inquiry chaired by Justice Raymond Zondo. Civil society organisations and ordinary people gathered to share the direct impact State Capture…
11 October 2019 | SABC News | Former President Jacob Zuma and French Arms Company, Thales, have lost their bid to avoid prosecution on corruption charges. They’ll have to appear in court on Tuesday for the start of their trial, which has been delayed for 15 years. Zuma’s legal team argued that the National Prosecuting…
Mark Heywood | Daily Maverick | 7 October 2019 We are more than a year into the Zondo Commission, but sometimes one can be forgiven for thinking, where are the people’s voices and who were the real victims? On 12 October a People’s Hearing in Johannesburg aims to answer those questions. In late 2018 a…
Fatima Moosa | Daily Vox | 8 October 2019 For months now, the state capture commission has been taking place headed by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo. The commission have been looking into the allegations of state capture and corruption within the public sector. Many startling allegations have come forward from the commission. The hearings began on…
On Wednesday, the High Court in Pretoria found the Seriti commission failed to comprehensively investigate the arms deal as it had been mandated to do. The commission, chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, ran for four years and cost taxpayers more than R130m. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, standing in for Eusebius McKaiser, spoke to author and Corruption Watch…
Perspectives- Robbin’ the Hood | 25 August 2019 | Mamello Mosiana and Michael Marchant | Any analysis of state capture is incomplete if it fails to grapple with the network of private actors that facilitates unethical, corrupt and other criminal economic activity. A narrow focus on the structural and institutional weaknesses in the ruling African…
Gushwell and Mamello Mosiana from Open Secrets look in to the life and legacy of the anti-apartheid activist Dulcie September who remains the only high ranking activist who died in exile, following their podcast series about the murder of Dulcie’s life “They Killed Dulcie”.
22 August 2019 Setting aside the findings of the commission into the arms deal offers an opportunity to cast the net wider says Andrew Feinstein, arms trade activist and author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. He talks to Upfront’s Refilwe Moloto about details of the two-decades-long investigation into South Africa’s arms…
Andrew Feinstein, Hennie van Vuuren, Paul Holden | 21 August 2019 We welcome the judgment delivered on Wednesday in the High Court that sets aside the findings of the Seriti Commission of Inquiry into the Arms Deal. This is a profound victory for South African civil society and is the result of years of collective…
SABC Digital News | 21 August 2019 A full bench of the Pretoria High Court led by Judge President Dunstan Mlambo has set aside the 2016 findings of the Arms Deal Commission with costs. In handing down judgement, the court found that the commission failed in its legal mandate to test the veracity of crucial…
Stef Arends | Orig jaar dienden twee Zuid-Afrikaanse ngo’s klacht in tegen KBC Groep. Die bank voerde grootschalige witwasoperaties uit ten tijde van het apartheidsregime, en zorgde daarmee dat een internationaal wapenembargo decennialang kon worden omzeild. Het OESO-contactpunt voor ethisch internationaal ondernemen weigert de klacht echter in behandeling te nemen. De apartheid zou te lang…
ENCA | JOHANNESBURG Two NGO’s say they are disappointed with a decision not to investigate banks for allegedly supporting the apartheid government. The Center for Applied Legal Studies and Open Secrets submitted a complaint about the role of European banks during apartheid. Tumelo Matlawa from the centre for applied legal studies says they have evidence…
SABC Digital News | 31 July 2019 Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has denied claims that she has been flagged for having received US $5000 from the Guptas 5 years ago. Mkhwebane dismissed the allegations on social media as fake and has demanded to see bank statements. The allegations come from the global non profit group,…
MEDIA RELEASE 31 July 2019 EUROPEAN AUTHORITIES REFUSE TO INVESTIGATE APARTHEID’S BANKS More than one year after submitting a complaint detailing the role of European banks in supporting and profiting from apartheid, CALS and Open Secrets have been informed that authorities in Belgium and Luxembourg are refusing to investigate these economic crimes. With no clear…
Alex Mitchley Civil society organisations have called on Deputy Judge President Raymond Zondo, who is chairing the commission of inquiry into state capture, to not treat certain witnesses with kid gloves, and to robustly apply the principle of equality before the law. According to a joint statement by organisations such as the Right2Know Campaign (R2K),…
Member organisations of the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture call on the Zondo Commission to more robustly uphold the principle of equality before the law.
Open Secrets’ Director Hennie van Vuuren speaks about the continuities of corruption in one of the panels at Business Maverick’s Business Against Corruption event.
Open Secrets’ Researcher Michael Marchant chats with Africa Melane on the Seriti Commission and the Review.
Right2Know (R2K) and Corruption Watch (CW) will be in court on 11th and 12th June to finally review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission
On the 11th and 12th of June 2019 Corruption Watch South Africa and Right to Know Campaign (R2K) are at the High Court in Gauteng to present their review application into the Seriti Commission. Michael Marchant and Mamello Mosiana from Open Secrets, in a short informal video, discuss the process that led to this step.
The corruption case against former South African president Jacob Zuma has begun. Zuma’s case lifts the lid on the influence of weapons companies on governments worldwide. “It’s not a story of a corrupt guy, Jacob Zuma,” says Hennie van Vuuren, the director of Open Secrets, a South African organisation that investigates economic crimes and abuses…
Phemelo Motene unpacks the arms deal with Micheal Marchant
The final episode of They Killed Dulcie takes a critical look at what happened to the investigations of Dulcie September’s murder.
Sound Africa’s Rasmus Bitsch talks to 702’s Lester Kiewit about the last episode of They Killed Dulcie: Impunity.
Greg Nicolson | Daily Maverick Arms company Thales, accused of bribing former president Jacob Zuma, argued on Tuesday that the charges against it are invalid and must be set aside. In Apartheid, Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit, Hennie van Vuuren describes the relationship between French arms company Thomson-CSF and the apartheid government. The state…
In this episode, we unveil the murky world behind the Danish shipping industry’s pristine façade.
In this episode we take a deeper look at the discrimination Dulcie September’s faced and reflect on the experiences of women in the struggle for South Africa’s freedom.
Cape Talk’s Refilwe Moloto speaks to Open Secrets’ Researcher Michael Marchant.
For almost two decades starting in the 1970’s the South African embassy in Paris was the centre of a large-scale sanctions busting operation. It was connected to the arms dealers, spies and banks that formed part of the arms money machine. In episode five They Killed Dulcie, we find out if this top secret operation…
Shaazia Ebrahim | A number of international banks funded the apartheid regime and its military through credit. It has been one year since Open Secrets, along with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), demanded accountability from the international banks in Belgium and Luxembourg that financed apartheid. The organisations submitted a complaint to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) National Contact Points (NCPs)…
Tabitha Paine | Lee-Ann Bruce Without the help of European banks, the apartheid government would not have been able to buy arms and continue its campaign of violence and oppression. Between 1977 and 1994, countless people lost their lives while the banks essentially profited from their deaths. What can be done to hold the banks…
One year after CALS and Open Secrets brought to light evidence that European banks profited from apartheid, no decision has been made on whether to investigate
In the fourth episode of the podcast They Killed Dulcie, the time has come to look at the evidence. What was Dulcie investigating when she was killed?
Sound Africa’s Rasmus Bitsch talks to Lester Kiewit about the fourth episode of They Killed Dulcie, Prisons of the Past.
In the third episode of “They Killed Dulcie,” we delve into the world of informants and double agents and how the apartheid security forces used them to infiltrate the liberation movements in South Africa and abroad. It remains a sensitive topic in South African politics today – some comrades were also collaborators. Following the assassination…
The podcast, They Killed Dulcie has gripped my imagination over the last few weeks. It tries to uncover the mysterious circumstances around the death of the anti-apartheid activist in paris in 1988. In the third episode of “They Killed Dulcie,” the producers Rasmus Bitsch and Neo Rakgajane delve into the world of informants and double…
Mail & Guardian | Lester Kiewit A new effort is being made to uncover the truth surrounding the 1988 assassination of exiled ANC official Dulcie September in Paris, France. September was gunned down outside the ANC’s Paris office on March 28. She was shot five times in the head with a .22 silenced rifle. To…
The second episode of the podcast series They Killed Dulcie continues where episode one left off. The journey begins in a Parisian suburb, but ends in Johannesburg, where former Apartheid era spy Craig Williamson opens the door to the murky world of espionage. Dulcie’s childhood friend, activist Betty van der Heyden recounts the story of…
A new podcast series by Sound Africa and Open Secrets,They Killed Dulcie, draws from research by Open Secrets for the book Apartheid Guns and Money: A tale of profit. This is the first episode of a podcast series about Dulcie September’s life and assassination. The first episode begins in Cape Town in the 1930s, and ends…
Hennie van Vuuren | Khadija Sharife | Mark Anderson Yahya Jammeh once said he would rule the Gambia for “one billion years”. His rule proved somewhat shorter — he lost the presidential elections in 2017 after 22 years in power. Since then, a massive clean-up of Gambian institutions has begun. But the cost of his…
In 1988 in Paris five bullets ended the life of Cape Town-born liberation movement activist Dulcie September. Why was she killed? Who profited from her murder? These are the questions being asked in a new pod cast documentary series, brought to us by anti-corruption lobby group Open Secrets, and produced by Sound Africa. The new…
Media Statement| CSWG | 21 March 2019 The struggle against State Capture and corruption in South Africa is a struggle for human rights. This is why the current revelations at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture (the Zondo Commission) are important – they lay bare the various networks of looters in the public and…
Refilwe Moloto speaks to Open Secrets’ Researcher Michael Marchant this follows on the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s directive to all pension fund administrators to urgently get cancelled pension funds reinstated by the courts if they found that they had been erroneously deregistered before 1 April 2018.
Wendy Trott | Luminate | 20 March 2019 | Over the last few years, South Africa has been made painfully aware of the economic and social consequences of corruption. In 2018 Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index assigned South Africa an index of 43 out of 100, ranking them 73 out of 180 countries (those with…
Between 2007 and 2013, more than 6,000 pension funds in South Africa were cancelled in a process littered with errors and oversights. Today, Open Secrets has written to five of the country’s largest pension fund administrators to demand swift action to reinstate pension funds that have been incorrectly cancelled. This is the first of many…
Watch the trailer for our podcast series with Sound Africa: They Killed Dulcie.
South Africa’s history is one of rapacious profit-taking by corporate elites at the expense of South African people and its environment. Whether it was the Dutch East India Company, Anglo-American and De Beers, or Lonmin, the rules of the game have for too long been set to enable extraction and profit-taking that has entrenched gross…
8 February 2019 State of the Nation Address 2019: Time to Get Serious About Economic Crime An important focus of President Ramaphosa’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) was on the Commissions of Inquiry that have the potential to finally tackle high level corruption in the private and public sector. This includes…
An international arms trader, in relentless pursuit of alleged unpaid commission going back to the 1980s, now wants the Auditor General of South Africa to release apartheid-era records to boost his civil claim against the state arms procurement agency in Portugal.
A large shipment of 50 ‘Super Puma’ helicopter ‘kits’, sent to South Africa from French arms company Aerospatiale via Portugal, was typical of apartheid-era covert sanctions-busting deals. Now that news has broken that a Portuguese arms trader wants his R8bn commission for the deal, isn’t it about time to free the apartheid archive, open the…
Peter Hain | The Spectator | 15 December 2018 Most people would claim to abhor apartheid, but London, Washington, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv were all in on the act. Around 1970 I was labelled ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ by white South Africa’s newspapers for leading militant anti-apartheid protests which stopped all-white…
“I have saved enough to retire peacefully. But now I will turn in my grave because I will die in poverty.” This was said by Douglas Maila, a member of the Unpaid Benefits Campaign, at a protest outside Alexander Forbes demanding that it pay pensioners the benefits they are owed. Maila’s experience of contributing a…
The widespread looting and corruption by the Gupta family and its associates were enabled not only by political individuals but also by banks and other financial sector institutions
Steve Kretzmann | Daily Maverick |15 November 2018 The looting of the VBS Bank may be astounding to struggling South Africans, but it is merely a symptom of a banking and auditing system that skirts the law in order to fleece the poor and enrich the rich. This is revealed in a a new report…
The report begins by outlining the role played by international banks in supporting the apartheid state, both through the facilitation of illegal weapons trades and the continued provision of loans and capital despite international recognition of apartheid as a crime against humanity. It also considers the impact on democratic South Africa in repaying these odious debts.
Martin Plaut | The Conversation | 30 October 2018 It’s not very often that a book really reshapes our perception of an issue, but Hennie van Vuuren’s “Apartheid, Guns and Money: a tale of profit” is one. It is a massive work: over 600 pages and the result of a decade of meticulous, painstaking work. Read the…
The People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime has the potential to reshape the trajectory of how we conceptualise economic crime and the role of the private sector. South Africans have been staggering through multiple exposés on private and public sector corruption over the past few months alone, be it allegations of looting of public funds by…
Fatima Moosa | The Daily Vox | 25 April 2018 From 24 to 27 April, civil society organisation Open Secrets along with the University of Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) will take a complaint to banks in Belgium and Luxembourg regarding their apartheid economic crimes. They are demanding accountability from the international banks that have financed apartheid.…
Ra’eesa Pather | Mail & Guardian | 03 April 2018 | A high court judgement has left the South African History Archive (SAHA) reeling following a cost order which could put the organisation out of business. Protecting and preserving historical records, particularly those relating to the apartheid regime and activism against it, has been the…
Marc Davies | Huffington Post | 02 February 2018 | Crimes of the “rich, powerful and politically well-connected” in South Africa, beginning Saturday, will come under intensified scrutiny as civil society groups rally to ‘join the dots’ in the country’s story of capture and plunder. Organisations including Open Secrets, Corruption Watch, Right2Know and the…
Amil Umraw | Huffington Post ZA | 21 June 2017 | An expert on apartheid-era looting says South Africans should be wary of bounty-hunters. Hennie van Vuuren, Director of Open Secrets and the author of “Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit” says it must be remembered that the Public Protector’s Ciex report on the…
Joint press release by Open Secrets and CALS UN Independent Expert weighs in on OECD complaint, and NGOs challenge conflicts of interest in Belgian decision-making body A heavy blow has been dealt to two European banks at the centre of the apartheid-era international arms money machine. The implicated banks are KBC Group (previously Kredietbank) and…
If you want some more information about Open Secrets and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies’ recent OECD complaint laid against Kredietbank (now the KBC Group) and its subsidiary in Luxembourg, read our useful factsheet below.
Today the United States celebrates its “Freedom of Information Day”. It is supposed to provide an occasion to focus on issues of public access to information and transparency in the US government. Given the extensive capacity of United States agencies, particularly their intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the US possesses considerable information about the…
Why, after more than two decades of democracy in South Africa, is the apartheid archive still kept under lock and key?
The Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, released a controversial report on 19 June 2017 detailing the failure of the South African Government to implement the CIEX report and recover funds from ABSA.
This meticulously researched book finally lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes
News broke last Friday that the Public Protector’s leaked report into the Bankorp/Absa “lifeboat” scandal dating back to the dying years of apartheid rule called for Absa to repay over R2-billion to the South African fiscus. The public response was cacophonic. Depending on your vantage point, media reports suggested that this was one of two…
The municipal elections this year are likely to be the most expensive local polls yet. Political parties are seeking more and more money to finance electoral campaigns, increasing the need to attract private funders. This opens up the space for the capture of politics by narrow private interests, a hot topic when it comes to…
Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign have launched an application to review and set aside the findings of the Arms Procurement Commission
Press Statement by Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie Van Vuuren, regarding the release of the Seriti Commission Report into the Arms Deal | 21 April 2016 On the 21st of April 2016, President Jacob Zuma announced the release of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into allegations of fraud, corruption, impropriety or irregularity…
R2K is angered by the content of the report of the Seriti Commission, presented today by President Zuma, which claims that it found no evidence of corruption and bribery in the 1999 Arms Deal.
A final, calculated act of vandalism by the apartheid state was the destruction of more than six-million pages of documents that had been generated by the state security agencies. Although an important part of our history went up in smoke above the steel furnaces outside Pretoria, a far greater volume of records remains largely untouched…
Like many South Africans, I hear a lot about the growing “lawlessness” in SA. The strongest proponents are often people who have emigrated. It is mentioned in many contexts, but it is increasingly used at home and abroad to criticise corruption in government. Isn’t it sad, the story generally goes, that resources are lost and…
The people of Tunisia, the northernmost African country and epicentre of the recent Jasmine Revolution, conducted a peaceful election a few weeks ago, which has gone unnoticed by many South Africans. Situated on opposite ends of the continent, South Africa and Tunisia face similar social problems, such as high levels of youth unemployment and similar…
In a recent Business Day article, former DA leader Tony Leon argues that, despite the brutality of its system, the apartheid political elite had better accountability than we see today. Time, it appears, may both heal wounds and erase memory. In his recent Business Day column, Mr Leon makes an argument that falls into an all-too-common…
In another post, we’ve responded to recent claims that public accountability has eroded in the post-apartheid period. Whatever the current problems facing South Africa, we argue that there are no ‘better days’ to hark back to. Here are eight corruption scandals under the apartheid system that remain ‘open secrets’, for which no meaningful action has…
There has been a stream of obituaries for Marc Rich, infamous billionaire, sanctions-buster, and one-time “King of Oil”. But these obituaries cannot tell the full story: we are still piecing together his true legacy [UPDATE: This article was republished by The Daily Maverick] Probably the most successful oil trader of all time, Marc Rich’s true…
Despite evidence that political corruption may have been rampant during apartheid, there has been a surprising lack of political will to investigate “If there was corruption during Apartheid, why didn’t anyone hear about it?” A common and obvious question, with more answers than you might think. One answer is that people who lived through apartheid often did…
In order to fight corruption in South Africa, we must first understand it – and acknowledge its secret history at the centre of South African politics and business. It is no secret that South Africa has a problem with corruption. At every level of our society, in the public sector and in the private sector,…
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