Democracy & Social Justice

With only three day notice, South Africa went into full lockdown on the night from 26 to 27 March. What happened in the three days leading up the lockdown is highly impressive. Instead of everyone following the instinct of making provision for themselves, neighbourhood solidarity networks sprang up spontaneously.

This week Open Secrets publishes the first of a number of profiles on the corporations and middlemen implicated in the multibillion-dollar Arms Deal of the late 1990s. None of these companies has been held to account.

Big consulting firms take no credit and they accept no blame. This philosophy has enabled McKinsey & Company to profit with ease from work with authoritarian regimes, troubled businesses and corrupt state-owned enterprises. In South Africa, their work at Eskom and Transnet on some of the most infamous State Capture contracts reveals a story of a corporation willing to place profit above principle, and sometimes allegedly even the law. This week Open Secrets focuses on evidence in The Enablers investigative report that shows that McKinsey has not been held accountable for its role in State Capture. While it profited from its role in these contracts it shies away from meaningful responsibility for serious economic crimes.

The infamous Estina Vrede Dairy Project was supposed to direct public funds to ‘empower’ indigent Free State farmers and develop local agriculture. Instead, almost all of the money was looted to benefit the Gupta enterprise. This week Open Secrets focuses on two of the banks that facilitated this injustice. As shown in The Enablers Investigative Report, it takes more than a few corrupt politicians to capture the state. It requires banks to facilitate suspicious payments and the extraction of money from the country. In the case of Estina, Standard Bank and FNB have questions to answer.

If Transnet was a golden goose for the Gupta family and their associates, then global banking giant HSBC played the role of tending their illicit nest eggs. This week Open Secrets examines the role of a key global enabler in the State Capture network. As shown in The Enablers investigative report, it takes more than a few corrupt politicians to capture the state. It requires a global financial machinery – and HSBC was an important bank in this network.

Who laundered money for the Gupta acolytes and used the opportunity to cash in on State Capture? A new investigative report, ‘The Enablers’, co-authored by Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations, details the role of bankers, accountants, consultants and lawyers in State Capture. Submitted to the Zondo commission, the report details case studies which are the focus of the next five weeks of Unaccountable. Open Secrets starts with the role of Nedbank and the Bank of Baroda.