The first People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime in South Africa was held from 3-7 February 2018 at the former Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. As secretariat of the People’s Tribunal, Open Secrets convened an organising committee comprising of a range of civil society organisations, including the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), Corruption Watch, the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), Open Secrets, Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) and the Right2Know Campaign (R2K).
War Profiteers
The corporations and regulators who enable profiteering from grave crimes such as genocide, apartheid, and human rights abuses.
Explore all our work on war profiteering below, including investigations, reports and legal action:
ICP Investigation
Proudly South African- Made in the UAE
Whistleblower “ICP Leaks” expose how the UAE’s International Golden Group (IGG) company ‘Made in Emirates’ armoured vehicles are secretly South African-designed and built by Integrated Convoy Protection (ICP) staff using SA-exported parts. This is all amid the UAE’s support for armed factions in Sudan’s ongoing genocide.
#ShutdownsEverywhereYouGo
Exposing MTN’s role in internet shutdowns
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.
Christoph Huber
Accused of DRC war crimes but living easy in South Africa
Christoph Huber, a Swiss national, has been accused of pillaging mineral resources from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the Second Congo War (1998-2003). Despite his elusive presence, an investigation by Open Secrets has confirmed Huber’s residence in South Africa. Huber owns four properties in the Western Cape, valued at R25.7-million ($1.4-million).
Discover the allegations against Swiss businessman Christoph Huber for war crimes in the DRC, including the illicit exploitation of minerals and his confirmed residence in South Africa.
Rwandan Genocide
How middlemen and corporations armed the Rwandan Genocide
In the investigative report, The Secretary, we delve into the Malo Arms Deal facilitated by South African arms dealer and former secretary to PW Botha, Willem ‘Ters’ Ehlers. While PW Botha’s ousting left Ters Ehlers without a job; the early 1990s and the advent of democracy in 1994 would be an opportunity for him and other securocrats to monetise their proximity to the inner workings of the apartheid military establishment. The Secretary focusses on one single arms transaction related to the Rwandan genocide, the report underscores the global nature of civil wars and genocide. It shows how localised genocides have far and complex origins, involving not just victims and perpetrators but also enablers and profiteers.On the 20th of June 2024, Open Secrets submitted a memorandum to the NPA for the prosecution of Ters Ehlers for the offence of aiding and abetting the Rwandan Genocide.
They Killed Dulcie
Podcast series by Open Secrets and Sound Africa
On 29 March 1988 five bullets ended the life of South African freedom fighter Dulcie September. She was imprisoned, driven into exile and by the 1980’s she spearheaded the anti-apartheid efforts in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg from a small office in Paris.
Why was she killed? Who is the shadowy network that profited from her murder? Why do her killers roam free?
Russian Doll
Assassinations, torture squads and political intrigue
Colonel Frans Mathipa was shot in the head and killed by unknown assassins on Sunday, 6 August. Who are the skilled shooters who murdered a seasoned investigator in the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State Unit? Is there a link to a SANDF Special Forces unit that is alleged to have abducted civilians suspected of being Isis terrorists? What was this unit of Special Forces operatives doing on the quay in Simon’s Town when containers were loaded off and on the Russian vessel the Lady R in December 2022?Russian Doll is an Open Secrets series published on the Daily Maverick.
Lady R Arms Shipment
Our quest to reveal the secrets of the sanctioned Russian vessel.
A sanctioned Russian ship docking in South Africa’s most important naval base rightly set off alarm bells. What was onboarded and was it destined for the war zone in Ukraine or any hot conflict in Africa? We need evidence to substantiate facts — on all sides. Open Secrets has submitted correspondence to the South African presidency that the independent inquiry into the Lady R arms shipment be made public. We have also submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to United States agencies who we believe should have information concerning the Lady R arms shipment to and from South Africa in December 2022.
War in Yemen
South Africa’s complicity in war crimes in Yemen
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Yemen, South Africa has exported arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of the countries supplying arms that is fuelling the war in Yemen. The UN Expert Group on Yemen and reports by civil society organisations have accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of violating international humanitarian law and the human rights of the Yemenis. Despite this, South Africa’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) has been approving arms export licences to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is in this backdrop that Open Secrets and the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) launched an application to review the NCACC’s decision to approve export licences.
Declassified: Apartheid Profits
Series in published in the Daily Maverick and News24
While researching Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit, Open Secrets collected approximately 40,000 archival documents from 25 archives in seven countries. These records contained damning details of the individuals and corporations that propped up apartheid and profited in return. Many of these documents were kept secret until now, and most remain hidden despite South Africa’s transition to democracy. In line with our belief that this information should be scrutinised by the public, we published the Declassified series of articles on the Daily Maverick and News24 to make public the documents that informed the book.
Apartheid, Guns and Money
A tale of profit
South Africa remains a deeply unequal society battling the legacy of apartheid and the persistence of corrupt networks that seek to ‘capture’ its democratically elected leaders. In Apartheid Guns and Money, Hennie van Vuuren argues that in the absence of accountability, corrupt networks of the past stay in business. Rather than face justice, they invite members of the new elite to the table. In over 600 pages, this meticulously researched book finally lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together a treasure trove of newly declassified documents and eyewitness accounts.
Apartheid Banks
The case against KBC and KBL
Apartheid, Guns and Money showed how Kredietbank (Belgium) (KBC Group) and Kredietbank Luxembourg (KBL now Quintet bank) laundered money to enable the South African apartheid state to buy weapons in violation of UN arms sanctions. These weapons were essential for the apartheid state’s violent domestic repression, and for the wars and attempts to destabilise other governments and liberation movements in southern Africa. Since 2018, Open Secrets has been working to hold these banks accountable using both international and domestic accountability mechanisms. This includes a complaint to the OECD’s National Contact Points in Belgium and Luxembourg, and the handing over of a criminal “docket” to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The South African Coalition for Transitional Justice
Coalition of organisations and individuals working together for transitional and transformative justice in South Africa
The SACTJ was established by civil society organisations in 2011 to hold the South African government accountable to its obligations and commitments to justice, redress and reparation.
Open Secrets is a member of the SACTJ and is currently leading the Economic Crimes sub committee.
