The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture will resume on Monday with the testimony of South African-born British politician, Lord Peter Hain.
Hain, a former anti-apartheid activist and frequent visiting lecturer at the Wits Business School, is a well-known anti-corruption campaigner.
He has been at the helm since 2017 of having international companies alleged to be involved in state capture, investigated by the British and other international governments.
“I am not so much naming names as calling out the failures of governments like Britain, of corporates and banks like HSBC, Bank of Baroda and Standard Chartered, who have provided the conduits, the pipes through which this money was stolen from South African taxpayers. It was sent into the international financial system and then spent by the Gupta brothers in a lavish way, that is where I think the real outrage is beyond the outrage that has already been exposed in South Africa,” says Hain.
“As the son of two white South African anti-apartheid activists, together with my involvement in the freedom struggle has meant that I was absolutely outraged by the shameless looting under former President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta brothers in particular. They betrayed all the values of the freedom struggle, all of those values of justice and equality and integrity that Nelson Mandela epitomised in his leadership. It was that when I was asked to get involved in exposing the international dimension to this that I was very happy to assist those who were fighting it within South Africa,” says Hain.
