South Africa: Who’s exploiting who?

 A total of 28-million South African citizens, or 47% of the population, rely on social grants. [welfare payments].

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa hailed the governing party’s efforts to “tackle poverty head on”.

He was referring to the monthly R350 social relief of distress grant government introduced in 2020 which about 10-million people receive and other social grants such as old age pension and child support grants from which 18-million people benefit.

He said the party’s approach to tackling poverty has been two-pronged: “First through the social wage, which involves a range of social and economic interventions, including expanding access to quality basic services, and second through direct transfers to households in the form of social grants.

This year South Africans will head to the polls to vote for national and provincial governments.

As part of campaigning, a week ago Ramaphosa threatened that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme ) and social grants were likely to disappear should the ruling party lose power. He was lambasted for using scare tactics as part of electioneering.’

https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-01-15-listen-28-million-people-rely-on-social-grants-ramaphosa-boasts-about-ancs-efforts-to-prevent-poverty/

And in a social system where ‘can’t pay, can’t have’ is built in, those without will always find ways to try and get what the minority elite as got even if it means hurting other members of their class.

An unemployed teacher from Daveyton in Benoni, was receiving the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant each month since it was introduced during the Covid lockdown in 2020.

But in January 2023 he got an SMS from the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) alerting him that his cellphone number had been changed. He did not receive another grant payment again after this.

He has tried several times to report the fraud to Sassa via email. Each time, he is told that his case has been escalated. A year later, he still hasn't been helped. He is one of many people who complained to GroundUp in recent weeks about being defrauded and blocked from receiving the grant.

Elizabeth Raiters, who heads up the social grant help desk at PayTheGrants– a campaign focused on creating universal income security and which helps people find correct information on the SRD grant – says she has received hundreds of similar complaints from people across the country.

Raiters says Sassa's response to reports of unauthorised cellphone number changes has been to prohibit recipients from changing their numbers online. Recipients have to phone Sassa's help desk. They are then sent a one-time PIN to the cell number currently registered on the Sassa system to authorise the change. But for beneficiaries such as Nxumalo who have had their cellphone numbers taken over by possible fraudsters, this process is futile.

Raiters says, in addition to the unauthorised cellphone number changes, PayTheGrants has received complaints from several new applicants for the R350 grant who turned 18 in 2023 and discovered that their ID numbers were already being used to receive the grant, preventing them from accessing the grant.

The number of SRD grant beneficiaries varies between 7.5 million and 8.5 million, as recipients are subjected to monthly means tests.

Sassa is developing facial recognition software to strengthen the identity verification process for the grant, Letsatsi said. The software is expected to be implemented in the 2024/25 financial year.’

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/recipients-blocked-from-getting-r350-grant-after-fraudsters-change-their-cellphone-numbers-20240117

https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-01-15-listen-28-million-people-rely-

on-social-grants-ramaphosa-boasts-about-ancs-efforts-to-prevent-poverty

https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-01-15-listen-28-million-people-rely-on-social-grants-ramaphosa-boasts-about-ancs-efforts-to-prevent-poverty

Censorship and Corruption at South Africa’s Public Broadcaster?

Things aren’t going too well for South Africa’s public broadcaster.

The country’s parliament is holding an enquiry into the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) amid allegations of censorship, government interference and preferential treatment for a chief operating officer who seemingly lied about his qualifications but is in favor with President Jacob Zuma.
Why is the SABC in trouble?

For a variety of reasons, many of which relate to Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who took up the acting role of chief operating officer at the SABC in 2011. Motsoeneng introduced what became known as a “sunshine news” quota at the SABC, which required the majority of news coverage to be positive.

This policy came into sharp relief earlier in 2016, when the SABC refused to cover violent protests across the country. Protesters in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province torched more than 20 schools in a dispute over district boundaries in May, while people also took to the streets and clashed with security forces in Pretoria in June ahead of local government elections in August.

In a statement, the SABC said they were not going to “provide publicity to such actions that are destructive and regressive,” with Motsoeneng suggesting that broadcasting footage of protesters would encourage copycat acts.
How did people in South Africa react?

Lots of them reacted with indignation. The South African National Editors’ Forum said the policy smacked of apartheid, the political system of racial segregation that was abolished in South Africa in 1994, when “the apartheid regime blamed media...for spreading nationwide uprisings” and “a picture of false peace was being manufactured.” The acting chief executive of the SABC, Jimi Matthews, resigned in June, saying that the corporation’s policies had “compromised the values I hold dear.”

A group of journalists spoke out against the censorship policy and were sacked. In July, a labor court ruled that the group—who have become known as the SABC 8—were unlawfully dismissed and should be reinstated.
What has the parliamentary enquiry found so far?

While the enquiry is still in its early stages, there have already been some juicy allegations. One of the SABC 8, Vuyo Mvoko—who was formerly a contributing editor at the corporation—claimed that the network had directed money towards a rival network, ANN7, owned by the Guptas, a family with close links to Zuma. The motive behind this alleged transfer of funds is unclear, but other SABC journalists have claimed that Motsoeneng acted with impunity at the SABC, knowing that his role was protected by the highest echelons of South Africa’s government.
Edited from Here >

THE MATCH FIXING SCANDAL THAT GRIPPED ZIMBABWE

What a match-fixing scandal!

Zimbabwe’s 2017 Orange Africa Cup of Nations soccer qualifies in Gabon was once again marred by another clandestine match-fixing scandal. That was unearthed prior to the Group L encounter where Zimbabwean players were to rub shoulders with Swaziland. The former Zimbabwe international, Edzai Kasinauyo was implicated in the match-fixing scandal. For this reason, Kasinauyo was instantly suspended on pending investigations. The Zimbabwe Football Association headed by the business magnate, Phillip Chiyangwa boastfully indicated that it had evidence that Kasinauyo was working with popular Asian match fixers to rig the outcome of the match pitting Zimbabwe and Swaziland that was slated for 25^th of March this year. As Kasinauyo was named in the match-fixing scandal, thorough investigations were conducted. Zimbabwe Republic Police had to summon the national team’s coach (The Warriors) to testify in the case that had claimed Edzai Kasinauyo who had been on the Zifa board as well as Pasuwa’s Assistant, Nation Dube. Despite investigations reached an advanced stage, Kasinauyo and company who were shell-shocked stuck to allegation denial insisting that they had made no contact with anyone in Asia. The former Zifa Chief Executive Officer, Henrietta Rushwaya was also dragged into the matter. Unfortunately, that brought no fruition but only capitalism proved that it sucks from all angles of the status quo.

Going back memory lane, Zimbabwean soccer was once again hard-hit by another similar multimillion-dollar betting scandal in Asia named. Around 80 players were implicated in a major match-fixing scandal that rocked local football in 2012. The coaches and players were accused of receiving payments from an Asian betting syndicate - involving the now convicted and imprisoned guru Wilson Raj Parumal - to lose friendly matches on trips to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Oman, Jordan, Bulgaria, China, Yemen and Thailand between 2006 and 2011. 15 players and officials received life bans and more were suspended.

 It was insane for these players and their leaders fooled everybody in Zimbabwe pretending that they had the country at heart yet there were after clandestine activities with global match fixers. Even President Robert Mugabe used to treat them to state banquets before sending them out on national duty.  The episode is the sending of the fake Warriors team to Malaysia and what transpired at the Merdeka Cup that is Malaysian tournament of independence celebration. The then famous world match fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, is said to have been in charge of the team and their welfare including paying the players to throw away matches. Team officials were offered 5-Star Treatment including chauffeur rides, drinks, and sex. Fingered as the engine room to this madness, the then former Zifa CEO, Rushwaya was arrested by police and hauled to court to answer charges on match fixing involving 11 counts of concealing transactions from a principal, two counts of fraud and 15 counts of bribery involving $1,000,000. She was remanded on $500 bail. 13 players were banned for life and nearly 70 received their suspension for their part in the then Asiagate scandal.

 However, this was put to a halt and everybody was spared from the noose following the intervention of the world body, FIFA, led by the then Seth Blatter. Fifa cited irregularities on how the investigations were carried out thereby refusing to sanction the penalties. What a mad system that siphoned a scandal that brought a devastating impact on the now declined Zimbabwe’s football standards. The Zimbabwean government and its Zifa should be aware that soccer is a big business project being cogged by the head of imperialism that doesn’t value concrete investigation findings. Not that in this unfair world, even if the players are well paid by their governments, offers by those involved in soccer betting are exorbitant and ever attracts the watchful eyes of wealth gathering soccer players. To express this, read about 1915 British football betting scandal

Bigboy Musemwa

       

The robber barons

According to World Bank estimates from household surveys, the share of people in Africa living on less than $1.90 a day fell from 56% in 1990 to 43% in 2012.

However, there were many more poor people in Africa in 2012 than in 1990 (more than 330m, up from about 280m), as a result of rapid population growth.

Africa will not meet the Millennium Development Goal target of halving poverty by 2015 and projections are that the world’s poor will be increasingly concentrated in Africa. Of the 10 most unequal countries in the world today, seven are in Africa.

Despite the increase in school enrollment, more than two out of five adults are still unable to read or write, and the quality of education is very low. About three-quarters of sixth graders in Malawi and Zambia cannot read for meaning, providing just one example of the school quality challenge.

But almost half of the 10 million graduates churned out of the over 668 universities in Africa yearly end up unemployed.

Africa is not poor. Africa is a rich continent. She is the world's most resource-rich continent with 50 percent of gold, 55 percent of diamonds, 96 percent of oil, 40 percent of hydroelectric power potential and millions of hectares of arable lands. Africa is not only rich in natural resources but also in human capacity, which are its true riches in this twenty-first century. Across the length and breadth of the continent are vast potentials and budding talents of young people which when effectively harnesses and developed, would give impetus to Africa's social, economic and political efforts. The youth of Africa forms the generation of hope for Africa's development.

Africa is a rich continent led by greedy and covetous leaders. They grab all that there is but are not satisfied; they come to power broke but by the time they leave office they have amassed immeasurable wealth for themselves. Billions of dollars of public funds continue to be stashed away by some African leaders while schoolchildren have neither books nor desks nor teachers. Our people live in poverty, our hospitals are very poorly equipped and staffed, our teeming youths have no jobs and our roads are crumbling. Our greedy leaders have no care for the common people. They misuse funds, hide more in Swiss and other banks leaving the masses to suffer in absolute poverty. It is only greed that will make African politicians divert public funds meant for development into their personal bank accounts to build mansions and buy luxury cars.

Containing the Cartels

Six of the world’s biggest container shipping companies were raided by South African on suspicion of colluding to inflate rates between Asia and South Africa, the country’s Competition Commission said. The companies under investigation are involved in the transportation of cargo for import and export purposes across the globe‚ including South Africa. They use large metal containers as packaging crates and in-transit warehouses to store and transport general cargo such as frozen foods‚ garments and footwear.

The development comes as global container lines struggle in the worst-ever market conditions, caused by a glut of ships and slowing global trade, which has battered earnings and forced at least one out of business. The six companies raided comprise local subsidiaries of Denmark’s Maersk, Swiss-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), France’s CMA CGM Shipping, Germany’s Hamburg Sud, Singapore-based Pacific International Line and Maersk unit Safmarine, the commission said in a statement. It said the firms were suspected of engaging in collusive practices to fix incremental rates on the shipment of cargo from Asia to South Africa.

“Any cartel by shipping liners in this region results in inflated prices for cargo transportation,” Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said. 

In July, EU antitrust regulators accepted an offer from Maersk and 13 competitors to change their pricing practices in order to stave off possible fines. 

Who polices the police?

Amnesty International said it had investigated facilities run by the Nigerian police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and found multiple cases where “confessions” were allegedly obtained through torture, where people who had not been charged with any crime were claimed to be beaten and starved, and where suspects were detained for months longer than the maximum 48 hours defined in Nigeria’s constitution.

A specialist police unit that was set up to tackle Nigeria’s alarming rise in violent crime has instead become a hotbed for alleged corruption, where suspects are claimed to be detained in horrific conditions and tortured until they or their relatives can pay for their freedom, according to their report.

The unit has become seen as a comfortable posting in the police force where officers allegedly know they can “earn a substantial amount of money in a short time”, in part through extortion and in part through the theft of valuables from suspects.

South Sudan's Kiir and Machar profited during war

South Sudan's political and military elite have made themselves rich while the country has struggled under a civil war of their making, a report says.

The document accuses President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar, and top generals of profiteering.It follows the trail of money with links to the families of both Kiir and  Machar.

Entitled "War Crimes Shouldn't Pay", the report has found that "top officials ultimately responsible for mass atrocities in South Sudan have at the same time managed to accumulate fortunes, despite modest government salaries. Some have been involved in questionable business deals while others have apparently received large payments from corporations doing business in South Sudan."

 A fall-out between President Kiir and former Vice-President Machar - the most powerful members of their respective Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups - led to the civil war which erupted in December 2013.
Terrible atrocities have been carried out by both sides - often along ethnic lines.
Mass rape has been used as a weapon of war and United Nations reports have detailed human rights abuses.We reported on this here.

Some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes, and millions more need food aid.

 When a peace deal between the two men fell apart amid heavy fighting of the streets of the capital Juba in July, any chance of a quick resolution to the crisis crumbled.
"This war is about rival factions of a kleptocratic network trying to gain control of the state," said JR Mailey, the author of the report by The Sentry, which is a collaboration between The Enough Project, Not On Our Watch, and C4ADS.

 It says President Kiir's wife and at least seven of his children were linked to a whole range of businesses, and has evidence that Kiir's 12-year-old son had a 25% share in a holding company.
It says a company linked to his brother-in-law, Gen. Gregory Vasili Dimitry, supplied fuel to the military while he was a senior officer.

 It details business connections between Gen Vasili and the Kiirs, and says that the two families hold interests in almost two dozen companies.
"I was mostly struck by the breadth of sectors in which these top officials are involved," said JR Mailey, the author of the report."We're talking everything from airlines, to banks, oil companies, mining companies, casinos. It seems that a very small number of people control a large swathe of South Sudan's economy - and many of these people are also the people that are in power," he said.

 Machar is accused of dealing with a Ukrainian arms company through a Russian intermediary with multiple aliases.
"What we found on Vice-President Machar, he had been engaged in negotiations to sell the country's oil production for defence products - for weapons in order to fuel his rebellion," said Mailey. "We also found evidence that a nephew of his was involved in a violent and hostile takeover of a security company operating in South Sudan."

It says both President Kiir and  Machar have luxurious homes in the same upmarket neighbourhood of Nairobi.

Top generals are also implicated in business deals, with large amounts of money going through their bank accounts. Army chief of staff Gen. Paul Malong Awan is accused of having close business connections to President Kiir and his family and having luxury villas.

 The report says Deputy General Malek Reuben Riak, and a general sanctioned by the US, Gabriel Jok Riak, had millions of dollars passing through their foreign bank accounts, despite salaries of less than $50,000 (£37,730).

The Sentry recommends using a "new approach to countering mass atrocities...That involves using the tools of financial pressure that were developed to counter nuclear proliferation and organised crime and terrorism," said Mr Mailey. "We want those tools to be deployed aggressively in South Sudan. In the past these sanctions have only been applied in a piecemeal fashion and we think sanctions need to be accompanied by robust anti-money laundering measures," he said.

 An expanded international peacekeeping force for South Sudan is due to help bring a peace deal back on track, but there's little confidence the crisis - affecting so many millions of people - will be resolved any time soon.

"There are few people in the world who have suffered as much during the past half century as the South Sudanese who suffered three major wars and watched their leaders and international enablers profit from their misery," Don Cheadle, co-founder of Not On Our Watch said at the news conference.

Compiled from a BBC article here

More from this blog on South Sudan here

Corporate Crimesouth

In South Africa greedy businessmen in collusion and running cartels are driving millions of people into poverty.

The World Bank recently reported on its analysis of four of 70 cartels detected by the South African Competition Commission between 2005 and 2015. It shows that if cartels operating in the maize, wheat, poultry and pharmaceutical sectors were to be broken up, more than 200 000 people would be raised out of poverty. Cartels operating in the wheat sector overcharge on products by between 7% and 42%, in poultry [25%] and in pharmaceuticals [between 10% and 15%]. The inflated charges result in price increases in these sectors of an average of 10%. Products from these sectors make up a large proportion of the expenditure on food of the poor.

"Spending on wheat, maize, poultry and pharmaceuticals accounts for 15.6% of the consumption basket of the poorest 10% of the population," said the World Bank.

Spending on wheat-derived products accounts for the biggest portion of the basic-food costs of poor people. The World Bank, using data from the South African Income and Expenditure Survey of 2010-2011, said prices inflated by collusion led to poor households having to go without medicines so that they could eat.

Simon Roberts, director of the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at the University of Johannesburg, said prices in South Africa, as internationally, were generally marked up by 15% to 25% more than if there had been no collusion. Food pricing expert Merwyn Abrahams, of the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action, said a study that looked at the effects of food-price inflation on low-income households showed that last month the cost of their food basket increased by R318.67 compared to last year to R1,942.42 - its highest ever.

"Maize meal was the main driver of food inflation, with the cost of a 25kg bag increasing by 39.6% compared to last year," Abrahams said.

"The situation is really bad," said Competition Commission spokesman Itumeleng Lesofe. "There are cartels in almost every sector of the economy. The commission has uncovered cartels in food, infrastructure and construction, automotive, healthcare, financial services and energy."

$300,000 a month for knowing people

 South African businessman Niko Shefer is siphoning millions of dollars from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration as facilitation fee for the $206 million loan accessed from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to refurbish the Plumtree-Mutare Highway.

It emerged Zinara is depositing a staggering $300 000 in Shefer's FNB account in South Africa monthly and that contract is running for 10 years. All Shefer did to deserve such a golden handshake was to link Zinara and DBSA.

He charged 2 percent of the loan amount extended to the road fund. At the lapse of the 10-year contract between Zinara and Shefer, the road fund would have paid him $36 million. The money that Shefer is receiving is over and above the interest that Zinara is paying to DBSA for the $206 million loan.

Canadian Colonialism

With a mere 0.5 percent of the world’s population, Canada is home to half of all internationally listed mining companies operating in Africa. Many companies based have even taken African names. African Queen Mines, Tanzanian Royalty Exploration, Lake Victoria Mining Company, African Aura Resources, Katanga Mining, Société d’Exploitation Minière d’Afrique de l’Ouest (SEMAFO), Uganda Gold Mining, East Africa Metals, Timbuktu Gold, Sahelian Goldfields, African Gold Group and International African Mining Gold (IAMGOLD) are all Canadian. Active in 43 different African countries, Canadian mining firms have been responsible for dispossessing farmers, displacing communities, employing forced labour, devastating ecosystems and spurring human rights violations.

Canadian companies loot (legally and illegally) African resources. Canadian mining companies have been accused of bribing officials and evading taxes. Last year TSX-listed MagIndustries was accused of paying $100,000 to tax officials in a bid to avoid paying taxes on its $1.5-billion potash mine and processing facility in Congo (Brazzaville). In April, a Tanzanian tribunal ruled that Barrick Gold organized a “sophisticated scheme of tax evasion” in the East African country. As its Tanzanian operations delivered over US$400-million profit to shareholders between 2010 and 2013, the Toronto company failed to pay any corporate taxes, bilking the country out of $41.25 million.

Canada’s paternalism towards Africans is deeply rooted in its  political culture.  Gripped by a desire to rid “darkest Africa” of “nakedness” and “heathenism”, Canadian missionaries helped the European colonial powers penetrate African society. In 1893 a couple of Torontonians founded what later became the largest interdenominational Protestant mission on the continent and by the end of the colonial period as many as 2,500 Canadians were proselytizing across Africa. Today, all the media-anointed Africa “experts” promote a similarly paternalistic version of ‘aid’ and largely ignore Canadian companies’ role in pillaging the continent’s wealth.

Recently, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada organized the World Partnership Walk in 10 cities across the country. In an article titled “How the World Partnership Walk” lets Canadians bring hope to African communities the organization’s International Development Champion, Attiya Hirj, writes about visiting Aga Khan Foundation and Global Affairs Canada sponsored projects in Tanzania and Mozambique. Hirj says her “trip really opened my eyes to what rural communities truly need, which is a sense of hope.” She suggests the situation can be remedied if enough Canadians come “together to fundraise and generate awareness through activities such as the World Partnership Walk.” There is no mention of the need for African resources to be controlled by and for Africans. Canadians concerned about African impoverishment should point their fingers at the Canadian firms controlling the continent’s resources and offer solidarity to those sisters and brothers fighting for African resources to be controlled by and for Africans.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/06/while-canadian-companies-exploit-african-resources/#more-62922

Angola's thief gets a new job

In Angola, controlling the oil fields is indelibly linked to controlling the country.

Angola’s president is keeping control of state resources in the family. Faced with a struggling economy as global oil prices slump, president Jose Eduardo dos Santos appointed his daughter Isabel as head of the state-owned oil company Sonangol which manages Angola’s lucrative oil and gas reserves and contributes to about half of the country’s annual GDP while fueling a precarious and lop-sided post-war boom. The drop in global oil prices have hit Angola hard, forcing the country to cut public investment by 53%. Sonangol reported a net profit $710 million last year, down from more than $3 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Isabel dos Santos, 43, is said to be worth some $3.3 billion, much of which is linked to the country’s fortunes. Her assets include 25% of Angola’s largest mobile telecommunications company, Unitel, a 7% stake in the Portuguese oil and gas firm Galp Energia, a controlling share of a Portuguese cable television company, a lucrative stake in one of Angola’s largest banks Banco BIC and still more. Her 18.6% stake in Portugal’s second largest largest bank BPI is up for sale. Isabel dos Santos also dabbles in retail and owns a Luanda nightclub. Her vast wealth has attracted scrutiny and European officials have called for an investigation into her European Union investments. Lauded investigative journalist and activist Rafael Marques de Morais has accused Isabel dos Santos of directly using state funds as seed capital for her investments.

Her brothers Welwitchea José dos Santos and José Paulino dos Santos own Semba, a thriving communications company that is contracted by the state to run various publicity and marketing projects, according to Marques and the company’s own portfolio. It also doubles as a modelling agency. Semba has been accused of receiving funds directly from Angola’s national budget.

http://qz.com/699211/africas-richest-woman-and-presidents-daughter-will-head-angolas-state-oil-company/

Obiang set to become Africa's longest ruler

Africa’s longest-serving ruler, Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, looks set to win a fresh seven-year term. Obiang initially took office in a 1979 coup, ousting his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was then rapidly dispatched before a firing squad. He has since acted to preempt any new putsch, regularly claiming to have quashed attempted coups and building a fortress state policed by security personnel in every public nook and cranny.

Obiang captured 95% of the vote in last presidential election. The elections have no chance of being free and fair.  The main opposition Progressive Party of Equatorial Guinea is banned and its leader Severo Moto won’t be on the presidential candidate ballot.

For all of the wealth Equatorial Guinea’s natural-resources generates, the country remains one of the world’s poorest with three-quarters of its fewer than 1 million people mired in poverty. The U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 reached a settlement with Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the Equatorial Guinea president’s son who is seen as his potential successor, forcing him to sell a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California, a Ferrari and various items of Michael Jackson memorabilia, that he purchased in the U.S. “with the proceeds of corruption.” It also ordered that certain other assets of his, including a Gulfstream Jet, would be subject to seizure and forfeiture if they are brought into the U.S.

Nest-egging for a rainy day

The boom years of the commodities and the fast-growing African economies produced a growing class of millionaires and billionaires. According to a study by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, there were nearly 150,000 “high net worth individuals” in Africa by 2014, sharing wealth of $1.44tn.

But the revelations of the Panama Paper has the rich and famous worldwide squirming as their financial dirty laundry gets a public airing. Some of the documents released has uncovered illegal or scandalous conduct. But it may be revelations about the routine nature of offshore finance that have the most lasting impact. Mounting evidence suggests that a preference among African elites to shield their assets offshore means that inequality is greater than generally realised.

Between 1970 and 2010 an estimated $814bn flowed out of the continent, according to the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts.  “Most of the estimates we have for inequality leave out the fact that the top 1 per cent, in addition to all the money in their domestic accounts, have a lot of money offshore,” says James Henry, an expert in offshore finance and former chief economist of McKinsey & Company.

In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and top oil producer, for example, the number of individuals with assets over $1m surged by 44 per cent between 2005 and 2013, to 15,700.

Ethiopia, which has struggled with food insecurity and famine for decades, is producing millionaires at a faster rate than anywhere else on the continent. Between 2007 and 2014, the number more than doubled, from 1,300 to 2,700, according to New World Wealth, a consultancy based in the UK and South Africa.

The offshore industry has been growing since 2010 as stock markets in the region have taken off. The gains tended to accrue to a small elite and, thanks to the increasing ease with which money can be moved, the rate at which it flows offshore has surged. Global Financial Integrity, an NGO, estimates that illicit flows out of Africa are increasing at a rate of 20 per cent a year.

“Most ordinary people do not have stocks, so it is simply a result of the ownership of securities that has been a fact,” says Mr Henry at McKinsey. “What we tend to find is that once it is offshore, [money] stays offshore and is reinvested . . . Basically people are looking at this as their nest egg for when they get thrown out of power or need to retire.”

While rainy day funds held offshore tend to stay there, an estimated 20 per cent of such assets do circulate back into domestic markets. One popular avenue is through privatisation. However, such investments tend not to stay in domestic markets for long, as the companies invested in can then be used as vehicles to shift significant amounts of wealth offshore. “In every respect, this is an extremely poor quality of investment,” says John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network.

The private banking industry that caters to Africa’s wealthiest, including their offshore needs, has attracted many of the biggest global banks. Swiss banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer are all major players in African private banking, as are family-owned banks Pictet & Cie and Lombard Odier. Big French banks such as BNP and Société Générale as well as British banks HSBC, Standard Chartered and the upmarket Coutts are also significant players.

Johannesburg-listed Standard Bank is among the firms that have expanded their services to cater to Africa’s new class of wealthy individuals. In 2009 it established a Wealth and Investment business as an offshoot of its existing Private Clients division, catering to individuals with $1m in investable assets or more. Since then, its business in South Africa has trebled, while franchises in Nigeria and Kenya have each grown by over 50 per cent. Offshore is a key component of the services offered. “Almost all of our clients chose to externalise a part of their discretionary savings into safe havens such as our offshore jurisdictions,” says Deon de Klerk, Jersey-based head of Africa and International for Standard Bank Wealth and Investment. “This part of their wealth is seen as the nest egg and philosophically tends to be managed for long-term capital preservation,” he adds. “UK property has been very attractive over the past few years, and many wealthy Africans own second properties there.” The business currently has in excess of $12bn in assets under management worldwide.

Corruption and Tax Havens

Oxfam estimates, at least $18.5 trillion is hidden in tax havens worldwide. The organisation found that two thirds of this offshore wealth is hidden in European Union related tax havens while a third is in UK-linked sites where it is left undeclared and untaxed.  Oxfam said that their estimate is a conservative one. Tax Justice Network suggests that between $21 to $32 trillion is being diverted into offshore companies. Oxfam found that tax dodging by multinational corporations alone costs the developing world between $100 billion and $160 billion per year. Added with profit shifting, approximately $250 billion and $300 billion is lost. This “missing” money could lift every person above the $1.25 per day poverty threshold three times over, according to Brookings Institution calculations. Oxfam added that for every $1 billion lost through commercial tax evasion, 11 million people at risk across the Sahel region could have enough to eat, 400,000 midwives could be paid in Sub-Saharan Africa which has the highest maternal mortality rates, and 200 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets could be purchased to reduce child mortality from malaria.

Former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State James Ibori was also implicated in the Panama Papers,allegedly using Mossack Fonseca as an agent for four offshore companies in Panama and Seychelles. These entities provide anonymity, hiding true owners’ names and actions and thus allowing for finances and assets to be undeclared and untaxed.

Though he was detained in 2012 for diverting up to $75 million out of the country, Nigerian authorities estimate that Ibori stole and stored over $290 million in tax havens.

Like Uganda, Nigeria ranks low in health indicators, contributing to some 10 percent of global maternal, infant and child deaths. Poverty has increased in the country with 61 percent living below the poverty line, according to the most recent Nigerian Bureau of Statistics report.

The Niger Delta region in particular, despite being a significant contributor to the country’s economy through oil production, remains the poorest and least developed region in Nigeria. In Ibori’s Delta state alone, 45 percent of people live in poverty. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) report found that the majority of people in the region lack access to potable water, electricity, health facilities and infrastructure including roads and telecommunications.

“Have you seen any taps here?…Water used to run in public taps, but that had stopped 20 years ago. We basically drink from the river and creeks…hygiene is secondary,” a Niger Delta Resident told UNDP.

Though Ibori’s stashed money represents only a slice of Nigeria’s budget, it is indicative of a global and pervasive problem that goes beyond Mossack Fonseca.

Transparency International’s Senior Policy Coordinator Craig Fagan told IPS: “If you think about the millions of files that have been released and the number of high profile individuals [in the Panama Papers], this is just one law firm in Panama. We can be certain that there are many other law firms whether in London, Hong Kong, New York, Miami that are operating similar structures,” he said. The Swiss Leaks in 2015, revealed how over 106,000 clients from Venezuela to Sri Lanka hid more than $100 billion in Swiss HSBC bank accounts.

This is the same rigged system that has created the situation where the wealth of the richest 1% surpasses the combined wealth of the rest of the world.

Ghana's rich are the ruling class

According to Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director for the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) the power of the ordinary Ghanaian is gradually being sold to the rich politicians and that it is not the power of the people that is governing Ghana now, but the power of people who have money, stressing that these group of people have different agenda than serving the public good and are exploiting the system. 

He said there could be a possible collapse of Ghana’s democratic system if vote buying is allowed to take center stage in the coming elections in November.

He explained there was a small group of people that is controlling Ghana’s democracy and not for public good but for their pocket.

When reading a book is a crime

In Lisbon last week angry demonstrations took place in support of Angola’s human rights activists and against the influence of Angolan tycoons who have been investing in Portugal’s cash-strapped news and telecommunications industries, something that has been called “reverse colonisation”. The Portuguese parliament failed to condemn the long sentences given to the so-called Luanda Book Club – the 17 dissidents convicted of political defiance of Angola’s government. They accuse the Portuguese government of  “complicity in the ongoing looting” of the country by the Angola’s regime. Monday marks the 14th anniversary of the end of Angola’s 26-year civil war which began after independence from Portugal. Dos Santos, 73, has been president since 1979 and has been accused of presiding over one of the world’s most corrupt regimes, amassing a fortune for himself, his family and friends while two thirds of his country lives below the poverty line. Dos Santos is worth an estimated $20bn.

The group – including rapper Luaty Beirão, writer Domingos da Cruz and political T-shirt seller Nito Alves – were arrested for holding a meeting at which they discussed books, including one by Gene Sharp about non-violent protest, which was entitled From Dictatorship to Democracy. After a lengthy remand period, which included several of the activists going on hunger strike, and a trial on charges ranging from conspiracy to plotting, all 17 were sentenced last Monday to terms ranging from two to eight-and-a-half years, with hefty fines. Beirão was given five-and-a-half years for “falsifying documents” and journalist da Cruz was given the longest sentence – “for leading the criminal association”. One activist, Francisco Mapanda, was further sentenced to eight months for contempt of court after shouting in the courtroom, “This judgment is a joke.”

The Albert Einstein Institution has strongly condemned the men’s trial, as has the Human Rights Foundation. All 17 have been adopted as “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International, which has called for their immediate release and dismissed the trial as a “mockery of justice”. Its director for Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, said: “The activists have been wrongly convicted in a deeply politicised trial. They are the victims of a government determined to intimidate anyone who dares to question its repressive policies. This unjustifiable conviction and draconian sentences against these peaceful activists, who should never have been detained at all, demonstrate how Angolan authorities use the criminal justice system to silence dissenting views. They should not have spent a single day in prison.”

“The Angolan authorities always proclaimed to have caught this group ‘red-handed’ in their crime. That crime was reading a book,” said Vicky Baker, deputy editor of Index , the Index on Censorship’s magazine. “Evidence was so scant of the alleged coup-plotting that those charges had to be dropped. It is absurd and tragic that these young men have been convicted of rebellion and must now see out jail terms. This has been another sham trial, similar to the one we saw last year with Rafael [Marques de Morais], who was convicted of defamation after writing a brave and much-needed exposé of the country’s blood diamond industry.”

Angola's Secret Health Crisis

Angola is facing a public health emergency.  The UN agency has declared the outbreak a “grade two emergency” on its three-point scale. (Other grade two emergencies include the conflict in northeastern Nigeria, Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu last year, and floods in Myanmar, Mozambique and Malawi that displaced tens of thousands of people.) No one knows the true mortality figures – a product of both Angola’s poor data-keeping and the government’s preference to bury bad news. But there have been media reports of 50 people (or 25 children) dying daily from malaria, yellow fever, dengue and typhoid.

Its under-funded hospitals, inadequate at the best of times, have been overwhelmed by a series of disease outbreaks, and the government has been forced to turn to private business and charities for help. The UN Resident Coordinator Pier Paolo Balladelli and the heads of UN agencies called a meeting with the Angolan Industrial Association to appeal for private sector donations and logistical help with the yellow fever crisis. Paula Roque of Oxford University said she had heard of Angolan doctors based in South Africa sending medical supplies back home to help ease the shortages in a country that is Africa’s second largest oil exporter, and until recently was a rising economic star on the continent. 

“Angola is going through a very serious economic crisis as it’s heavily reliant on oil,” said Vibeke Skauerud, from Norwegian Church Aid. “Revenues have fallen by more than half. Hospitals are running out of basic supplies. That, coupled with bad governance, has led to the deep crisis that we now see.”

An outbreak of mosquito-transmitted yellow fever has killed 168 people since it emerged in Luanda’s poor neighbourhood of Viana in December – with suspected cases now reported in 16 out of 18 provinces.  Health officials launched a vaccination programme in Luanda in February, but the World Health Organization says the campaign has been hit by a number of constraints. “These included availability of vaccines, inadequate number of vaccination teams and limited funds to cover operational activities," a WHO briefing said.  The immunisation campaign has so far reached only six out of a targeted 12 municipalities in Luanda. Cases seem to be accelerating across the provinces, with reports of yellow fever reaching the northern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WHO said.

Oil accounts for 95 percent of government revenue. “Of course the oil price crash could be considered one of the reasons [for the crisis], but the huge corruption across the health sector is another one, and maybe the most important one,” said Alves da Rocha of the Centre for Studies and Scientific Investigation at the Catholic University of Angola.

“Civil servants haven’t been paid their salaries. Inflation has tripled food prices. Angola is going through a real financial crisis,” Paula Roque told IRIN. 

Rafael Marques de Morais catalogues in scary detail how health workers lack even some of the most basic items, like gloves and masks. Not the best backdrop for an emerging crisis that has so far flown largely under the international radar.

Author Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, an associate professor in comparative politics at the University of Oxford explains :

"Throughout modern history, the accumulation of capital has rarely been a pretty sight, but post-socialist Angola is in a febrile class of its own. It is virtually impossible for meaningful activity to occur outside the charmed circle of the politically protected.” Mr de Oliveira describes the ditching of "ill-cut uniforms" and their replacement with "Savile Row suits" as the country's elite embraced what he calls "oligarchic capitalism, Angola style". He observes how instead of the slave masters and mercenaries of years gone by, today armies of suited overseas advisors pull the strings within ministries and state-owned firms. Mr de Oliveira also explains how corruption has permeated every stratum of Angolan society, from having to pay for "free" primary school places and university pass marks, to body disposal by the state morgue. And he notes sadly how "most people in power are perceived as thieves", but criticism is muted by a desire for emulation and a share of that "easy-oil money" from this petro-state prosperity.

Selling cancer to Africans

British American Tobacco (BAT) has signed an $11.90 million deal with Malian state tobacco company, SONATAM for the production and distribution of Dunhill cigarettes in West Africa.

BAT is latching on the gullibility and weakness of African governments. It has created sneaky and illegal policies to outsmart restrictive laws, keeping Africa as one of its most lucrative markets while endangering millions of lives. According to Euromonitor data, BAT has the largest share of cigarette sales in the Middle East and Africa.  According to Financial times, it flagged a number of African countries as offering “further opportunities” for sales growth.

Late last year, a BBC investigation uncovered evidence of bribery at British American Tobacco. BAT was accused for bribery scandal in Kenya and Uganda. This was made known by Paul Hopkins who worked for the BAT in Kenya for 13 years and claims to have facilitated bribes for several individuals. In order to prove this, he released emails to Panorama showing the company’s involvement in these deals, which detail him being told that paying bribes was the cost of doing business in Africa.

In 2008, the company was the subject of a BBC documentary, in which Duncan Bannatyne investigated the marketing practices of the company in Africa and specifically the way the company targets younger Africans with branded music events, competitions and the sale of single cigarette sticks. Many of the practices uncovered were not in line with BAT’s own code of conduct and company standards. Bannatyne also interviewed Dr Chris Proctor, Head of Science and Regulation, who admitted that advertisements targeting children from three African countries were ‘disappointing’.

In 2007 the Nigerian government alleged that BAT marketing and advert campaigns were targeting the youth amongst other things. Several states in the country followed suit, taking legal action and seeking payment for future damages in anticipation of tobacco related diseases.

Where did the aid go?

Although Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and the Congo were all affected by the ebola epidemic , the real devastation occurred in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Medical facilities were overwhelmed at an alarming rate, already-lean government purses were stretched to the limits, the courage of health workers was tested to the brim, and normal life was ruined. In Liberia, the outbreak left half the heads of households out of work, while women - who account for more workers in the non-agricultural, self-employed sectors - were among the hardest-hit. So the aid money started coming in. By July 2015, the United Nations announced that donors had promised $5.2bn, which far outweighed the $3.2bn the three countries said they needed to "return to the progress of their pre-Ebola trauma".

President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, speaking on behalf of the three Ebola-hit countries, said: "Humanity sometimes displays short attention spans and wants to move to other issues because the threat from Ebola seems over … The threat is never over until we rebuild the health sector Ebola demolished, until we rebuild the livelihoods it compromised."

The much-vaunted "rebuilding of livelihoods ruined by Ebola" is far from happening. The Liberian government, whose task force destroyed the belongings of Ebola patients, was providing no help as survivors struggled daily for decent food, housing and employment. As Josephine Karwah, one of only three pregnant women to survive the virus, told me, the government left survivors "in a limbo".

Liberia's anti-corruption watchdog audited only a fraction ($15m) of the funding, and found that $800,000, most of which passed through the defence ministry, could not be accounted for. Specific instances of corruption included the disbursement of $600,000 for fuel, feeding, daily subsistence allowance, communication, medical and training, tentage repair, repair and maintenance, without supporting documents; and the payment of $10,000 to 68 officers in 10 counties who could not be physically seen or whose names could not be traced in the daily attendance records.

In neighbouring Sierra Leone the report of the Audit Service of Sierra Leone unearthed a series of financial irregularities, most notably payments to thousands of fictitious health workers, and expenses running into several hundreds of thousands dollars without supporting documentation.

The Ebola Fund Watch report in November 2015 reveals that although Guinea had received donation worth $330m as of November 4, 2015, there is not one audit report on the use of the fund. The "reports of mismanagement" suggested in this report are given credence by the former prime minister Cellou Dalien Diallo's description of Guinea as a country where "contracts aren't signed and investments aren't made".

In all three countries, no individual has been tried, much less convicted, for their role in the mismanagement of money meant to save the lives of the dying.

Corrupt SA Politicians

African National Congress activist Denis Goldberg, the only white man to be convicted among 10 people on trial for their lives alongside Nelson Mandela and served 22 years in prison,  has called for leaders of the party to be replaced.

"Corruption is a problem. I personally believe, and I will say it publicly as I do in South Africa, the members of the ANC need to renew the leadership from top to bottom. I'm not going to name names, because it's a problem throughout, from national, provincial and local government level."

The ANC veteran said that "a definite attempt" was now required by ANC members to say "enough is enough" and instigate a leadership clear-out.

 "Let us focus on the needs of our people, not on your needs as new political leaders with access to power, and therefore wealth and personal enrichment, which robs us, in a way, of our freedom."