Capital flight under apartheid

2019

Industrial and Corporate …, 2006

Under the apartheid regime, South African business was marked by a high degree of concentration, both in terms of ownership and activities; indeed, it could be argued that this concentration was both created by and reinforced the exclusions linked to apartheid. In this paper, we identify the main changes that have characterized South Africa's big business since democracy in 1994-unbundling of traditional conglomerates, transfer of primary listing to overseas stock exchanges, and slow emergence of black-owned economic groups. These changes are related to key policy actions taken by government, including liberalization, black economic empowerment (BEE) policies, and competition policies.

International Review of Applied Economics, 2018

Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 1981

1995

A survey of 3500 South Africans carried out between October and November 2009 indicated that on a scale of zero to 10, Zuma’s popularity had risen from 6.1 to 7.6. The largest increase came from minorities – Indians, Coloureds and Whites, as profiled by the market researchers – who pushed Zuma’s approval from 2.3 to 5.4 points. The ANC is also increasingly popular, registering a 71% rating (Ipsos Markinor 2010). In part this reflects relief that Zuma has proved to be an open, listening president with a common touch, rather than the aloof, paranoid Thabo Mbeki, who was unceremoniously deposed at the ANC’s Polokwane conference in December 2007. Zuma is just as at home dancing in leopard skins as he marries yet another wife, as he is in a dark suit, mixing with international business leaders at Davos. It is a remarkable skill. Having said that, it is clear that Jacob Zuma is struggling to hold together his increasingly fractious Alliance partners from the trade unions – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the (relatively unimportant) civic organisation, the South African National Civic Association (SANCO). This tension reflects many things. The inability of the opposition (weak as it is) to hold the ANC to account in parliament means that the real debate has shifted to inside the Alliance. There is a struggle for influence that is both personal and political. Much is at stake in terms of jobs for friends and family, lucrative contracts and access to government funding. This has led to the most overt forms of corruption and cronyism creeping into the ANC and the government. Hardly a week goes by without some or other example being revealed in the press.

Journal of Business Ethics, 1989

This article argues that foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in South Africa cannot evade an ethical choice, how best to exercise their leverage against apartheid? Disinvestment is only one, ambiguous option. MNCs need clear ethical goals and an effective strategy. Both arise from the political economy of the MNC (1). It involves 3 relationships, between the MNC parent and its subsidiary; the MNC home society and host society; and the MNC home state and host state. That political economy explains the MNC's dependency (la) and modernization effects (lb). Those effects give foreigners some leverage against apartheid; but an effective and ethical MNC strategy is needed (2). It involves four goals: dismantling apartheid, a mixed economy, full democracy, and a negotiated peace (2a). It suggests a sequence of MNC/home state options from Do Nothing or Divest to More Corporate Activism, Home State Support, and International Sanctions (2b). But victory is not around the corner; rather, we are all condemned to freedom. Foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in South Africa cannot evade an ethical choice. Neutrality is not on; but the issue is not just leave or stay. The hard question is how best to exercise the leverage of MNCs against apartheid? We need clear ethical goals and an effective strategy, of which disinvestment is only one element (see 2). It is best seen as part of the political economy of the MNC, notably its dependency and modernization effects (see 1). t Vincent di Norcia teaches sociaI philosophy and business ethics at the

Faculty of Humanities, 2020

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Elias Phaahla, for the invaluable guidance throughout this dissertation. I am very grateful for the interest he has shown towards my work and his timeous response to endless drafts I have sent him. I am also grateful to the staff at the Department of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town, who have also shaped the direction of this dissertation as well as availing tools to complete it. Moreover, I am thankful to my parents who have shown unwavering support throughout my academic journey.

Alternation Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa

The relationship between South African President Jacob Zuma and his family, and the Guptas, possibly the richest family of Indian origin at present in South Africa, has made persistent national and increasingly international headlines in the media over the past few years. The Gupta family, who arrived in South Africa from India just prior to the country's first non-racial democratic elections in 1994, are accused of colluding with Zuma in the removal and appointment of government ministers, as well as the directors of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in order to secure lucrative state contracts. This article examines the allegedly corrupt relationship between the Zumas and the Guptas to probe key issues in post-apartheid South African society: corruption, state capture, inequality, class formation, Black Economic Empowerment, and White Monopoly Capital. It argues that corruption has negative consequences such as creating despondency amongst the populace leading to capital flight and creating the possibilities for state capture as well as further deepening inequality.