The corporations and regulators who enable profiteering from grave crimes such as genocide, apartheid, and human rights abuses
Anine Kriegler A recurring line from those trying to dismiss allegations of corruption in the Arms Deal is: “Show us the evidence.” During his testimony at the Seriti Commission two weeks ago, former president Mbeki took an opportunity to lash out at critics, saying: “For all of these years we have been saying, let this…
Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Hennie van Vuuren This past week marked a significant milestone in the seemingly unending saga that is the arms deal. The fact that a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Erwin, was required to testify at the Arms Procurement Commission represents an important step in the process of deepening…
The death of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has renewed debate about his legacy, but there’s been little on its South African component. Even among Israelis, Sharon has long been a controversial figure. A career soldier, considered a brilliant strategist, but one with a history of insubordination, he brought to both his military and…
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…
The huge batch of cables released last month by Wikileaks, dating from the 1970s, is a goldmine for researchers of power and profit in South Africa. But some of the stories we found in the cables are as frustrating as they are fascinating.
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,…