The Who Owns South Africa? (WOSA) investigation is an in-depth analysis of the powerful private players who control large part of the South African economy – who are they, how are they transforming, and what are their connections with politics and the state? We also look at how these powerful players are often not working in the interests of the majority of South Africans, and how that can be changed. Looking at both the larger system and individual sectors of the country’s economy, the project aims to provide a detailed description of who controls the private sector.

Explore our latest investigative report, unveiling how luxury property in South Africa has become a tool for laundering vast sums of money tied to corruption across Africa. This multi-year investigation exposes how politically connected elites from the DRC, Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea use South African real estate to conceal the proceeds of grand corruption, facilitated by local professionals. Lawyers and real estate agents, as detailed in this report, play a key role in enabling these transactions, often at the expense of anti-money laundering laws.

The Zondo Recommendations Tracker identifies key government departments and ministries responsible for implementing key recommendations emanating from the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State, better known as the Zondo Commission or State Capture Commission.

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. Removing corrupt politicians from office and holding them to account is only the first difficult step. Directors of complicit corporations in South Africa and abroad must be held to account, too.

The Zondo Commission has ended its work, but the enablers and beneficiaries of state capture have yet to face justice. This report names the people, politicians and businesses who looted four South African state entities and agencies. They are the low-hanging fruit: the urgent cases that South Africa’s law enforcement agencies and regulators can act on now.

Shutdowns Everywhere You Go: Exposing MTN’s Role in Internet Shutdowns is an in-depth investigative report by Open Secrets that uncovers how South Africa’s corporate giant, MTN, and its subsidiaries are implicated in human rights violations in Africa and the Middle East. This report exposes MTN’s alleged complicity in executing internet shutdowns during wars and elections, and examines serious accusations of corruption, tax evasion, and enabling terror activities. With detailed case studies from Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Cameroon, Uganda, and Nigeria—and an additional analysis of Vodacom’s conduct in the Democratic Republic of Congo—#ShutdownsEverywhereYouGo lays bare the hidden business practices that have allowed these telecom giants to operate with impunity.

In two of South Africa’s most important law enforcement agencies, there are prosecutors and police investigators who have been accused of delaying or obstructing justice for state capture crimes. We call them the bottlenecks. These are the law enforcement officers at the National Prosecuting Authority and Hawks who failed to do their jobs — but some of them still remain in office, overseeing state capture investigations and prosecutions.

Open Secrets’ 3-part series of articles in the Swazi Secrets series is published in the Business Day and Financial Mail. Swazi Secrets uncovers the murky underbelly of Africa’s last absolute monarchy, where political power and wealth are wielded by King Mswati III and a royal coterie of con artists. The implications extend far beyond Swaziland’s borders, illustrating how financial institutions can be manipulated to fuel money laundering and organized crime across Southern Africa.

It has been months since the South African public has been updated on the government’s attempts to arrest or find the Guptas. The SSA and 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. Open Secrets will be relentless in pursuing accountability. While the authorities fumble about in extraditing the Guptas lets at least keep tabs on how they are spending all that looted South African cash.

This report is the product of a collaborative investigation by The Sentry and Open Secrets. The report examines 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. This story is about Zimbabwe, but it is also a story about the global financial economy that creates an enabling environment for state capture and the flow of funds out of the poorest countries in the Global South to offshore financial centres.

Corruption has a direct impact on the lives of people in South Africa. The link between corruption and lived experience is nowhere more obvious than the erosion of passenger train services in South Africa. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (PRASA) service has declined so dramatically over the last decade, the majority of working-class South Africans who once relied on the affordable service have had to turn towards more expensive modes of public transport. Read Open Secrets’ work on the middlemen and corporations who profited from corruption at PRASA.

The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture is a coalition of over 23 civil society organisations. The mandate of the working group has been to both support and strengthen the work of the Zondo Commission (State Capture Commission of Inquiry) while maintaining oversight over the commission in the interests of the public. The working group has achieved this through various means using advocacy, engagement with the commission and by making over 15 evidence-based submissions to the commission. Open Secrets acts as the secretariat of the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture.

The Corporations and Economic Crime Report is a publication series by Open Secrets that delves into cases of private sector economic crime and corruption, and their impact on human rights. CECR explores the most egregious cases of economic crimes and corruption by private financial institutions, from apartheid to the present day. In doing so, we aim to highlight the key themes that link corporate criminality across these periods of time, focusing on the role of the private sector, a critical blind spot in the discourse around economic crime. CECR volumes to date:

• The Bankers
• The Auditors
• The Consultants