Working hard to record the rot

CORRUPTION may be pervasive and entrenched in South Africa, but there are many people who are working hard to hold those responsible to account.

After years of investigation and research, Open Secrets, an NGO which investigates economic crime and uses the law to hold those responsible to account, has released a book in which it names and shames – in great detail – those who have been involved in the country’s biggest corruption scandals and have allegedly lined their pockets through irregular means.

The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity is edited by Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Ra’eesa Pather and Hennie van Vuuren.

The book contains 35 investigations which are divided into sections: apartheid and war profiteers; the state capture profiteers; those who have profited from welfare; bankers and the banks complicit in money laundering and profiteering; auditors who are complicit in economic crimes, as well as rogue consultants and lawyers.

While it’s best to read the book systematically, it’s easy to pick a section or an investigation and start from there.

The Independent on Saturday spoke to Van Vuuren, who said they were “constantly confounded” when they came across new matters in which various law enforcement agencies had failed to hold the responsible actors to account.

This prompted them to record who those people and organisations were and to make it easier for the public to understand.

Not only do they detail the rot, they also set out how those responsible can be held liable for their actions.

“There are so many rogues in South Africa, as there are in various other countries, and those rogues cut across time and they cut across different parts of our political life and our economy,” said Van Vuuren.

He warned the book did not contain an exhaustive list of rogues, but identifying some of them was useful in remembering how insidious this type of behaviour was.

A refrain throughout the book is while the wheels of justice grind slowly, they do indeed grind. “Our advice: do not be impatient if your infamy is not sufficiently recognised, rather be assured you are on the list of future investigations,” they write.

Van Vuuren said since the book’s publication they had not seen anyone held to account, but they have had a number of meetings to get the ball rolling. “It’s a long, long struggle. In most countries it takes a long time to hold the very wealthy beneficiaries to account,” he said.

He said in complex matters the institutions responsible for holding the corrupt to account often lacked the capacity to do so.

However, as a small pool of individuals working for a non-profit, Open Secrets was able to punch above its weight and do “heavy lifting”, so there was no reason why the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), with its resources, could not tackle implicated individuals.

Van Vuuren said Open Secrets was already dealing with banks in Belgium and Luxembourg and taking matters to various authorities.

Under apartheid profiteers, they examine the role of the National Party, Naspers and Swiss banks.

The section on war profiteers has chapters on Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales, as well as the UK’s arms corporation, BAE Systems, and John Bredenkamp.

Then they unpack state capture profiteers such as the Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Roy Moodley, Sfiso Buthelezi and Refiloe Mokoena.

Under the welfare profiteers, Liberty and Cash Paymaster Services are in the spotlight. Bankers under scrutiny are Nedbank, the Bank of Baroda, HSBC and Credit Suisse.

Failing auditors examines companies like Deloitte which they rename “Deloot”, KPMG and the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors.

Section 7 outlines the role of conspiring consultants like McKinsey, Bain and Company, and BCG Consulting.

In the final section, they deal with lawyers and the NPA, renamed the National Postponement Authority, in which Andrew Chauke and Sello Maema are dissected.