Democracy & Social Justice

South Africa's arms trade regulator has failed in its mandate to monitor the export of weapons to countries that, among other things, abuse human rights, or wage war against their own citizens. This begs the question, who will guard the guards themselves?

Companies with South African links have been allowed to supply Saudi Arabia and its allies with weapons — despite the humanitarian destruction the war in Yemen has wrought.

In Part 2, we profiled the conduct of the Liberty Group in the incorrect cancellation of hundreds of pension funds when they still held more than R100m owed to thousands of people. This is part of a far bigger scandal of unpaid pensions due to more than four million southern Africans. This week we look at Dube Tshidi, a regulator who not only effected the erroneous cancellations, but also failed to hold Liberty or any implicated financial sector actors to account. When the public needed effective regulation, the Financial Services Board (FSB) and its long-standing head failed them.

More than 16 million South Africans contribute to a pension fund, most of which are run by financial behemoths like Liberty. They do so in the hope of a decent dignified life in retirement, and to ensure their dependants will be paid if they die. While the South African public is castigated for not saving enough for retirement, the pension fund industry is largely silent when it comes to the over R40bn in ‘unpaid benefits’ owed to over 4 million people. Is this because fund administrators and asset managers profit from this money?

Margaret Hodge has clothed herself in the claim that she has dedicated her life to fighting racism – that her very ‘being’ was anti-racist, as she said in March 2019. The facts suggest otherwise.