Open Secrets Newsletter | June 2024
June 2024
Accountability for the Rwandan Genocide, the Gupta Tracker and access to information in the energy sector
We are seeking accountability for a key player in the Rwandan Genocide, we launched the Gupta Tracker, and made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change.
Help us find the Guptas!
It has been months since the South African public has been updated on the government’s attempts to arrest or find the Guptas. The State Security Agency (SSA) and Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) have stonewalled our attempts to find answers and there seems to be an apathy to hold the architects of South African state capture accountable. The millions of South Africans who have suffered under the effects of state capture, deserve truth and justice.
While the authorities fumble about in extraditing the Guptas lets at least keep tabs on where they are and how they are spending all that looted South African cash.
Open Secrets Calls for Investigation and Prosecution of South African Willem ‘Ters’ Ehlers for Alleged Role in Rwandan Genocide
Open Secrets has submitted a docket to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of South Africa urging for the prosecution of Willem “Ters” Ehlers for the offence of aiding and abetting the Rwandan Genocide. The basis for this docket stems from Open Secrets’ 2023 report The Secretary: How Middlemen and Corporations Armed the Rwandan Genocide which meticulously details Ehlers’ role in facilitating the procurement and sale of arms and ammunition to Rwandan government officials in blatant violation of the United Nations arms embargo imposed in May 1994.
Holding Ehlers accountable is not only a matter of addressing past wrongs but also of setting a precedent that reinforces the rule of law and prevents future violations of international humanitarian law.
Open Secrets urges the NPA to rigorously investigate the evidence presented and to proceed with the prosecution in accordance with South Africa’s obligations under international law
Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change
On the 7th of June, Open Secrets and the Access to Information Coalition for the Energy Sector* made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur for Climate Change for their latest report on Access to Information on Climate Change and Human Rights. The submission urges the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Climate Change to make the following recommendations to South Africa:
- That public bodies respond meaningfully to the Promotion of Access to Information Act’s requirement that certain records be voluntarily or automatically disclosed.
- That the Information Regulator undertake a proactive role in ensuring that public bodies are responding to information requests lawfully and timeously.
- That the state and public entities respond to requests in a manner that is truly reflective of the constitutional principles of openness, transparency and accountability.
*The Access to Information Coalition for the energy sector (ATIC) is a group of South African civil society organisations seeking to ensure transparency and accountability within the South African energy sector. Open Secrets acts as the Secretariat for this coalition as well as its smaller working group.
In The Media
[Listen] Lester Kiewit speaks to Michael Marchant, Head of Investigations at Open Secrets, about what happens now that former Eskom bosses Matshela Koko and Brian Molefe have had the cases against them dropped by the NPA.
This month, Open Secrets Director, Hennie van Vuuren, spoke at the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Vilnius, Lithuania in a session titled “Reversing State Capture: Lessons from Around The World.”
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