Riyaz Patel
Peter Hain, the former British MP who served in the cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, told the Zondo Commission how state capture was allegedly facilitated by international financial institutions, corporates, and foreign governments.
Hain – who was was born in Kenya, grew up in South Africa, and moved to London aged 16 – testified before Judge Raymond Zondo of the role international firms played in the rampant fraud and corruption playing out in the public sector over the past decade.
He said global banks, HSBC, Standard Charter and the Bank of Baroda, who were said to have allegedly assisted the notorious, corruption-linked Gupta family, were culpable for the capture of the state.
Hein says a lot of governments, including the United Kingdom, give “a lot of lip service” to anti-corruption and yet the Guptas have used the UK and South Africa to launder money.
“For international banks to claim they have no responsibility is frankly disingenuous and they should be held accountable for the consequences of accounts which have money that is smuggled,” he said.
“The banks concerned did not stop it and they are culpable, in my view, to state capture, the corruption and looting.”
Hain testified that although his plea was for the international community to address what he called a “sorry and sordid saga,” he said South Africa’s domestic regulatory mechanisms are not robust enough to counter systematic international money laundering operations.
He said the international actors in question then helped corrupt individuals enjoy the spoils of their criminality by facilitating the move of their ill-gotten gains out of South Africa.
