Stefaans Brmmer
Guest Author
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/ 25 February 2005

The salesman who admitted graft

The downfall of Jim Miller, a British-born technology salesman, may be his frankness. When a partner objected to his large expense claims, he admitted to paying what amounted to kickbacks. Miller started working for a United States technology company in South Africa in 1974. When it divested he set up local operations to fill the gap.

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/ 4 February 2005

AngloGold ‘aided’ warlord

AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) ”could arguably be in violation of the arms embargo” on the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo says a new United Nations report. The report alleges that the multinational provided housing for a rebel leader and paid the rebel group ”taxes”. The rebels, Front Nationaliste et Intégrationniste, control the area around the Kilomoto gold concessions being explored by AGA.

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/ 20 January 2005

How Kebble case crashed

The 62 fraud charges against the mining magnate were thrown out of Johannesburg Regional Court on Wednesday by Magistrate Vivien Hawkins, who agreed with the defence that Kebble’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had been infringed by repeated postponements since his November 2002 arrest.

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/ 18 December 2004

High noon in Kebble war

As latter-day Randlord Roger Kebble prepares finally to enter the dock in his much delayed fraud trial, allegations have emerged of a campaign, conducted by his family and associates, of financially inducing witnesses. Some evidence points to Willem Heath, the former judge who once headed the corruption-busting Special Investigating Unit, having played a less than proper role in the rough-and-tumble that followed Kebble’s arrest in November 2002.

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/ 5 November 2004

Shaik licence fiasco

Serious questions about the contract to supply South Africa’s controversial credit-card style driver’s licences have emerged from evidence at the Durban High Court trial of Schabir Shaik. Shaik’s Nkobi group has a one-third share in the Prodiba consortium that was awarded the contract by the Department of Transport in October 1996.

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/ 24 September 2004

SA denied knowledge

In a study of five transitional democracies, South Africa has fared worst in providing citizens with access to information. And the Presidency was among a handful of institutions that failed to provide any information in response to requests filed under the country’s much-vaunted Promotion of Access to Information Act.

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/ 3 September 2004

SA oils up to Obiang

South Africa is in advanced negotiations to get oil exploration rights from the government of Equatorial Guinea. The impending deal will expand the foothold of PetroSA, the South African state oil company, in the booming Gulf of Guinea. But it raises the question: Has the promise of oil lucre clouded the government’s judgement in helping a country with a dismal human rights record prosecute the mercenaries who wanted to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema?