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…
