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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:53 am
Time: 11:53 am
Results for apartheid
1 results foundAuthor: Van Vuuren, Hennie Title: Apartheid Grand Corruption: Assessing the Scale of Crimes of Profit in South Africa from 1976 to 1994 Summary: South Africans, whether in their individual capacities or as members of some form of organized civil society institution, have this proud history of engagingchead-on with the issues affecting us. This outstanding trademark stems from ourchistory of injustice and oppression. Coupled with this is our deep concern about the well-being of our fellow citizens. Corruption is a legacy of our past and it is therefore not surprising that the civil society sector pushed that the issue of apartheid grand corruption be put under the spotlight. This sector discussed the matter at its preparatory meeting to the Second National Anti-corruption Summit in March last year and raised the matter during the Summit itself. As one of 27 resolutions the Summit agreed that the sector should prepare a research report on crimes of corruption committed under apartheid and that this research be presented to the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF). Corruption, the abuse of entrusted power for private benefit, costs the people of South Africa billions of rand annually. It is a burden that is carried disproportionately by the poor as it effectively subsidises criminal elites within the public and private sector. It is a matter of public record that in the dozen years since South Africans claimed the right to elect a democratic government, almost no day has gone by without media reports highlighting the extent of the scourge. This includes allegations of intrigues involving individuals ranging from corporate tycoons to local councillors in remote rural areas, who have abused the power with which they have been entrusted in favour of narrow self-interest. Yet South Africans have made remarkable strides in countering criminal business in the past dozen years. Building on the foundation provided by the Constitution (1996) and the Bill of Rights, elected lawmakers have asserted their mandate to create laws and institutions that for the first time seriously combat corruption. The country has a comprehensive framework consisting of a host of public bodies with a mandate to vigorously tackle graft—and they are doing this with increasing success. Although the anti-corruption mechanisms are not without their flaws, they do ensure that many ordinary South Africans have the sense that justice usually prevails. The media, unshackled from apartheid-era press censorship, use this freedom to report on the anti-corruption efforts of the state and, importantly, to probe the thorny issues that citizens in every modern society fear are being covered up by various interest groups. However, it is worth noting that this was not always the case. For more than 300 years, all South Africans were under the yoke of colonial and apartheid rule, a system that benefited the few at the expense of the many. It was a system that ensured that white settlers—and later, white South Africans—were at the helm of a racial oligarchy that was built on the subjugation of black South Africans. It was a corrupt system of governance. A near monopoly on money, power and influence were in the hands of a minority and they used this to either violently suppress the majority or, at best, transfer resources in order to stave off the inevitable revolution. This report attempts to document and describe instances of corruption that we know took place during apartheid and in particular, during the period 1976–1994. Through documented evidence and testimonies of those who have information about this period it attempts to highlight on some well-known corruption cases. However, the report is equally concerned with that about which little is known: the questions that are asked throughout are those that have either not been answered, or not fully explored, by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) or any other organ of the democratically elected government. Importantly, the report is not intended to be an exhaustive expose of corruption under apartheid. In highlighting examples it does not mean that these are necessarily the only examples of apartheid-era corruption. The report does not attempt to make judgement on all the cases presented and has been limited in the extent of its enquiry by the amount of material available on the subject. It is worth noting that additional research is required to build a body of knowledge (which does not exist to any significant degree at present) of the types of governance failures that occurred during apartheid. This, together with limited human resources available in undertaking research for this report should also contextualise the reliance on newspaper clippings and single source interviews. The report begs the question: why has there been no successful dedicated prosecution of crimes of corruption involving the apartheid era elite? Is it due to a lack of evidence? Is this, in turn, due to a lack of capacity? Does it reflect part of a broader political agreement as part of the sunset clause? This report does not attempt to provide answers to these difficult questions but rather attempts to lay the groundwork for probity by others. (Excerpts from report) Details: Cape Town, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2006. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 3, 2010 at: http://www.liberationafrique.org/IMG/pdf/apartheidgrandc.pdf Year: 2006 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.liberationafrique.org/IMG/pdf/apartheidgrandc.pdf Shelf Number: 119741 Keywords: ApartheidCrime, South AfricaPolitical Corruption (South Africa) |