Corruption in South Africa: A Guide to Our Recent Reporting

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/world/africa/corruption-south-africa-guide.html

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First they heard about the spies. Then they heard about the secret brothels and the private planes. And the whole time, they were hearing about the assassins.

The details exposed in South Africa’s corruption scandals have upended the country’s perception of the governing party, the African National Congress, threatening its decades-long control of the government.

A generation after the end of apartheid in 1994, black South Africans are still mostly shut out of the country’s economic opportunities, while A.N.C. officials have enriched themselves largely through government contracts.

In recent months, we have published details of the vast corruption in South Africa and the impact on citizens. In the aftermath of our reporting, the president has promised to improve school safety standards and the deputy president has been forced to submit to a personal audit. Here is a guide to that coverage:

Since the end of apartheid, leaders of the A.N.C. have benefited themselves and their allies, siphoning off tens of billions of dollars of public funds meant to improve the lives of black South Africans. In a case emblematic of the widespread corruption, a failed plan for a dairy farm controlled by landless black farmers lost $21 million of public funds, but still managed to enrich South African elites.

The South African Revenue Service, the country’s tax collection agency, was once a showcase of good governance, and the country’s increasing tax revenue was a barometer of support for the young South African democracy. It has since been gutted by former president Jacob Zuma in an effort to avoid paying his own taxes, with the help of auditing firm KPMG. As public trust erodes, so do tax revenues, and the A.N.C.’s remedy is expected to hit poor South Africans hardest.

In 2015, the famed consulting firm McKinsey & Company signed on to what would become its biggest contract ever in Africa: a deal to save Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power company. The deal was illegal, and the partnership only lasted for eight months, but Eskom still paid out $100 million in public funds as electricity prices rose.

When Cyril Ramaphosa took office as South Africa’s president, he promised of a “new dawn.” This promise is being undermined by his deputy president, David Mabuza, who has left a trail of corruption in the wake of his meteoric rise within the A.N.C. Under his leadership, children drowned after falling into dilapidated school pit toilets and millions of dollars in education funding disappeared.

In July 2017, Sindiso Magaqa was ambushed by gunmen and murdered after accusing A.N.C. officials of pocketing millions of dollars intended for a building renovation. He’s one of nearly 90 victims of political assassinations in South Africa since 2016, a sharp rise over previous years. In most of these cases A.N.C. members hired hit men in a fight over money and power and to keep their vast corruption a secret.

The three Gupta brothers came to South Africa seeking opportunities, and in their 25 years there, they went from selling shoes to showing off their private plane. From large multination corporations that paid them for access, to A.N.C. officials who diverted money meant for the poor, the Guptas were able to find willing partners throughout the country. When their corruption could no longer be ignored, they left, and like so many foreigners before them, took their windfall out of Africa.