Read the full story as posted on the front page of ARINSA.org

Indian-origin woman Shamila Batohi appointed head of South Africa’s prosecuting authority

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Indian-origin woman Shamila Batohi appointed head of South Africa’s prosecuting authority

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Batohi, during a nationally-televised address at the government headquarters, the Union Buildings, on Tuesday.

World Updated: Dec 05, 2018 10:42 IST


Press Trust of India
Johannesburg


Prominent Indian-origin lawyer Shamila Batohi has been appointed to head South Africa’s prosecuting authority, the first woman to head the agency facing criticism for its handling of the investigations against former president Jacob Zuma over corruption charges.

Batohi will start her new role as the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) in February 2019.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Batohi, during a nationally-televised address at the government headquarters, the Union Buildings, on Tuesday.

During his maiden address, Ramaphosa gave the commitment that government would urgently attend to the leadership crisis at the NPA to ensure the institution is and able to perform its mandate without any outside interference.

Eleven months later, the prosecuting body now has a new head.

Batohi, who shot to fame as the evidence leader during the King Commission that probed the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga of 2000, was selected from a shortlist of 11 candidates who were interviewed for the high-profile position.

She will replace the previous prosecutor, Shaun Abrahams who has been accused by the opposition and rights groups of shielding former president Jacob Zuma from corruption charges during his nine years in office.

Batohi also comes in at a time when the organisation has been criticised for its handling of the state capture investigation, having recently provisionally withdrawn the Gupta-linked Estina dairy project case.

Batohi is stepping into a position that has proved to be so poisoned by politics that none of its appointees has come even close to surviving the full ten-year term, local media reports said.

She started her public service as a junior prosecutor in the Chatsworth magistrates’ court in 1986 and steadily rose through the ranks to become the Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu Natal.

She was seconded to the Investigation Task Unit established by President Nelson Mandela in 1995 and later served as the first regional head of the Directorate of Special Operations based in KwaZulu-Natal.

Batohi has worked for the past nine years as a legal adviser to the prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Congratulating Batohi on her appointment, Ramaphosa highlighted that he was addressing the state of dysfunctionality and deficiencies in the NDPP that had been identified by the Constitutional Court.

She was seconded to the Investigation Task Unit established by President Nelson Mandela in 1995 and later served as the first regional head of the Directorate of Special Operations based in KwaZulu-Natal.

Batohi has worked for the past nine years as a legal adviser to the prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Her predecessors in the era of Jacob Zuma’s Presidency all had controversy-laden tenures.

The high-profile cases that Batohi will inherit include 16 charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering instituted against former president Zuma.

“The President, and by proxy the people (of South Africa) have bestowed a lot of confidence in me,” Batohi said, adding “the least I can do is reciprocate that confidence.” “My only obligation is to serve the country with humility and dedication to the best of my ability. Each one of us, no matter where we are, must be ready to sacrifice the necessary, to fight the good fight. Our country needs us,” Batohi said.


Read More: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/indian-origin-woman-shamila-batohi-appointed-head-of-south-africa-s-prosecuting-authority/story-LXlhyUv7vXathyUNFwvVhK.html



593 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (2 réponses)

14,000 government officials caught doing business with the state: report

par Kudzai Chinoda,

14,000 government officials caught doing business with the state: report


An investigation by National Treasury has revealed that as many as 14,000 government officials are listed as directors of companies who have contracts with the state, Bloomberg reports, in direct contravention of government regulations.

Treasury also reportedly found the names of 12,000 dead people in its registry of companies, painting a grim picture of how government tenders are fraudulently rigged, to be handed to ‘preferred’ people.

According to Treasury’s procurement office, companies are set up with fake documents and the names of dead people, who then tender for contracts at high and inflated prices – making it seem as if the legitimate companies are offering the same services for much cheaper.

“It looks like there is competition, yet it’s the same guy,” the Treasury unit’s head, Schalk Human told Bloomberg.

Human also said that Treasury would be reporting the 14,000 government officials doing business with the state “even if we have to drag them to court”.

Fraud and inflated prices are said to consume as much as 40% of South Africa’s R600 billion budget.


182 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Global Financial Integrity Releases New Study on Trade Misinvoicing in South Africa

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Global Financial Integrity Releases New Study on Trade Misinvoicing in South Africa


November 13, 2018

 

South Africa Trade Mis-invoicing Leads to Massive Revenue Losses

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Analysis of trade misinvoicing in South Africa from 2010 – 2014 shows that the potential average loss of revenue to the government was approximately $7.4 billion per year or $37 billion during the period studied, according to a new study by Global Financial Integrity. The report, titled South Africa: Potential Revenue Losses Associated with Trade Misinvoicing (See Attached file below), analyzes South Africa’s bilateral trade statistics for five year period 2010 – 2014 using information from United Nations Comtrade and data made available from the South African Revenue Authority.

The detailed breakdown of bilateral South African trade flows allowed for the computation of trade value gaps that are the basis for trade misinvoicing estimates. Import gaps represent the difference between the value of goods South Africa reports having imported from its partner countries and the corresponding export reports by South Africa’s trade partners. Export gaps represent the difference in value between what South Africa reports as having exported and what its partners report as imported.

The average annual revenue lost due to the misinvoicing of imports was $4.8 billion. This amount can be further divided into its component parts: uncollected VAT tax ($2.1 billion), customs duties ($596 million), and corporate income tax ($2.1 billion). Lost revenue due to misinvoiced exports was $2.6 billion on average each year which is related to lower than expected corporate income taxes.

“The practice of trade misinvoicing has become normalized in many categories of international trade” according to GFI President Raymond Baker. “It is a major contributor to poverty, inequality, and insecurity in emerging market and developing economies. The social cost attendant to trade misinvoicing undermines sustainable growth in living standards and exacerbates inequities and social divisions, issues which are critical in South Africa today.”

Total misinvoicing gaps related to imports can be broken down by under-invoicing ($16.3 billion) and over-invoicing ($9.8 billion). It should be noted that these figures represent the estimated value of the gap between what was reported by South Africa and its trading partners. The loss in government revenue is a subset of these amounts and is based on VAT tax rates (12.9 percent), customs duties (3.7 percent), corporate income taxes (21.7 percent), and royalties (1percent) which are then applied to the value gap. Export misinvoicing gaps were a massive $11.6 billion for export under-invoicing and $8.6 billion for export over-invoicing annually. Lost corporate income taxes and royalties are then applied to export under-invoicing amounts to calculate lost government revenue.

The study examined trade data from the South African Revenue Service in order to conduct an in-depth examination of import under-invoicing. This process analyzed approximately 7.4 million trade transactions which included more than 8,200 commodity types for the period 2010—2015. A key conclusion is that goods categories with a preponderance of under-invoicing tend to be associated with higher effective tax rates than other classes of imports. The data show that the top five categories for potential revenue loss related to import under-invoicing are machinery, knitted apparel, electrical machinery, non-knitted apparel, and vehicles. Three of these commodities (machinery, electrical machinery, and vehicles) are among the most commonly imported goods into South Africa.

Trade misinvoicing occurs in four ways: under-invoicing of imports or exports, and over-invoicing of imports or exports. In the case of import under-invoicing fewer VAT taxes and customs duties are collected due to the lower valuation of goods. When import over-invoicing occurs (i.e. when companies pay more than would normally be expected for a product), corporate revenues are lower and therefore less income tax is paid. In export under-invoicing the exporting company collects less revenue than would be anticipated and therefore reports lower income. Thus, it pays less income tax. Corporate royalties are also lower.

The report was published with the generous support of the Ford Foundation.

###

Journalist Contact:
Tom Cardamone
Managing Director
tcardamone@gfintegrity.org
+1 202 293 0740 x223
Notes to Editors: All monetary values are expressed in nominal U.S. dollars (USD).

681 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Money Lending Firm Directors Arrested in K28 Million Scandal

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Money Lending Firm Directors Arrested in K28 Million Scandal

Chris Phiri | November 2, 2018


The Drug Enforcement Commission through its Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit in Lusaka has arrested and jointly charged three (03) Directors of Heritage Coin Resources Limited for money laundering offences involving over K28, 000,000.00 contrary to the laws of Zambia.

Hilda Agnes Raubenheimer, 35, a Business woman of Salama Park, Orient Rio Zekko, 29, a Secretary of Plot No. 1468/20/01 Ibex Hill and Tapiwa Chirwa, 40, a Managing Director of House No. 1245 Avondale, Zimbabwe has been arrested and jointly charged for providing banking business, financial business or financial services without a licence, conducting or participating in a money circulation scheme, obtaining money by false pretences and money laundering contrary to the laws of Zambia.

Particulars of the offence are that the suspects, on dates unknown but between 1st June, 2018 and 15th October, 2018 jointly and whilst acting together with other persons unknown did provide banking business, financial business or financial services to the general public  without a license, by collecting deposits from the public disguised as partnership fees and conducted or participated in a money circulation scheme involving K 28,346,800.00 by purporting that the company was investing the money collected as partnership fees from the public into Cryptocurrency trade on the web on behalf of the partners when in fact not.

It is further alleged that the trio obtained money by false pretenses and engaged into money laundering activities involving K 28,346,800.00 by collecting the said amount from members of the public and depositing into the company’s accounts, thereby, engaging directly or indirectly in business transactions that involved proceeds of crime.

DEC Assistant Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Chibu Mwansa Tembo has said in a statement that the three suspects are currently on Police bond and will appear in court soon.




306 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Taking global action against illicit financial flows

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Taking global action against illicit financial flows


The scope of the issue and how can the international community act in support of the 2030 Agenda

By Radha Kulkarni. Project Advisor, Tax Inspectors Without Borders and Development Finance, Strategic Policy Unit, UNDP

Between 2008-10 Africa had lost US$63.4 bn to illicit financial flows, US$1.2 bn more than what it has received in aid and foreign direct investment. Photo: Stuart Price / UN IST

 

Domestic public resources are identified as fundamental for development financing. One of the ways in which countries can mobilize these resources is by increasing tax revenues, yet this remains a key challenge for some. According to the OECD, in 2015, African countries as a whole had a total tax revenue to GDP ratio of around 19%, with Latin America and Asia averaging at around 22% and 15% respectively, compared to around 34% for OECD member countries. A variety of factors affect countries’ ability to generate tax revenues, including the presence of large informal and subsistence sectors, narrow tax bases, and dependence on volatile export commodities. Domestic revenues are further undermined by tax evasion and tax avoidance. The term Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) is often used to describe such practices.

There is no universal definition of IFFs, however such flows are commonly understood to fall into three main categories: (i) the acts themselves are illegal (e.g. corruption, smuggling and trafficking in minerals, wildlife, drugs, and people, tax evasion); (ii) the funds that stem from these activities are also illegal; and, (iii) the funds are used for illegal purposes (e.g. organized crime). Global Financial Integrity, a Washington based think-tank working on transparency in the international financial system, estimates that in 2013 US$1.1 trillion left developing countries through IFFs. GFI regards this estimate as highly conservative, as it does not pick up movements of bulk cash, the mispricing of services, or many types of money laundering. The research suggests that about 45% of illicit flows end up in offshore financial centres, and 55% in developed countries.

According to the OECD, between 2008-10, Africa alone had lost US$63.4 billion through trade mispricing and other illicit outflows; more than what it had received in aid and foreign direct investment, which amounts to US$62.2 billion over the same period. Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Nigeria and a global advocate for the fight against malpractices in taxation

: “One of the problems developing countries have is that large corporations or evaders of tax have a lot of expertise.” Beyond reducing much-needed resources for sustainable development, IFFs undermine governance, foster corruption and facilitate transnational organized crime. The issue is therefore rightly on the international policy agenda. As such one of SDG 16 targets (to promote peaceful and inclusive societies, and accountability) is to, "significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, [and] strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime."

Other sources of revenue leakage include those generated by aggressive tax planning strategies, typically by multinational enterprises (MNEs). MNEs engage in highly complex strategies to shift profits from where they are earned to low or no tax jurisdictions; also known as the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). The problem is exacerbated by knowledge asymmetry between developed and developing countries in terms of identifying, understanding and countering these strategies. According to UNCTAD, an estimated US$100 billion of annual tax revenue losses for developing countries can be attributed to multinationals’ offshore hubs. UNCTAD also notes that MNE contributions to government revenues are around 10 percent in developing countries. Appropriate MNE taxation is central to increasing the domestic resources of developing countries so that taxes are paid where economic activity occurs and value is created.

While working to increase confidence in national tax systems, the international community can help strengthen the tax capacities of developing countries. Photo: MaxPixel


What can be done?

Countries could commit to set nationally-defined revenue collection targets, work to increase domestic financial transparency, address excessive tax incentives, and build their revenue collection capabilities through modernized, progressive tax systems, improved tax policy, and more efficient tax collection. This would help to increase confidence in national tax systems.

The international community meanwhile can help strengthen the tax capacities of developing countries, including through Official Development Assistance (ODA). The Addis Ababa Action Agenda pledged the doubling of aid for taxation efforts from around $222 million in 2015 to almost $450 million by 2020. A recent Oxfam report, however, concludes that donors are not on track to fulfil this promise. There has been some progress at the international level on improving transparency. International initiatives include the UNDP-OECD joint-initiative Tax Inspectors Without Borders, and on automatic exchange of tax information through initiatives as the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the BEPS Action Plan and the G20 Development Working Group’s participation in the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) roadmap. More can be done to tackle anonymity and build the capacities of tax administrations in developing countries, yet to tackle the subject globally, international dialogues and policy-making processes on tax matters must be inclusive and include all countries.

In September 2018, the UN Secretary-General set out a strategy at the high-level meeting on financing the 2030 agenda, with actions that the United Nations will take to help accelerate and deepen the transformation of financial systems. This represents an opportunity for countries to work collaboratively in addressing weaknesses in legal and regulatory regimes, developing common goals of fairness and transparency, and continue building an international discourse on taxation issues to increase domestic revenues and finance development.

       


940 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Interpol arrests 27 suspects in crackdown on crime across East Africa

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Interpol arrests 27 suspects in crackdown on crime across East Africa

By CONRAD AHABWE | PML Daily Correspondent


KAMPALA – Uganda Police Force has netted 27 suspects in an operation code-named usalama that is done in conjunction with countries in the region.

The operation that was carried out between 27th September to 2nd October 2018 saw countries that fall under the umbrella of the Eastern African Police Chiefs Organization [EAPCCO] And Southern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization [SARPCCO] conducting it at the same time.

“This operation targeted transnational border crimes which include, theft of motor vehicles, human trafficking, wildlife and environmental crimes, stolen documents, vandalism, narcotic drugs, illicit trade of small and light weapons and terrorism” Director INTERPOL and International Relations, Dr.Fred Yiga said this in a press conference on Friday at INTERPOL offices in Kampala.

He added that the exercise was conducted together with relevant security agencies and statutory public agencies like National Forestry Authority, Wildlife, Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda National Drug Authority, Directorate of Public Prosecution and Immigration.

Yiga noted that 16 were arrested for being in possession of protected tree species, and were sentenced to two years in prison, five for being in possession of wildlife products like leopard skin, game meat, ivory weighing 36.4kgs, while others for vandalism, theft of motor vehicles and dealing in narcotic drugs.

Dr. Yiga highlighted the need for Kenya and Uganda to always conduct periodic regional training on the effects of drug trafficking in order to catch up with the ever-changing trends of criminals in human and drug trafficking.





255 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Panama Papers reveal offshore payments by Madagascar’s seafood king

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Panama Papers reveal offshore payments by Madagascar’s seafood king

Offshore entities played a key role in a network of companies owned by a rich and powerful shrimp merchant in the African island nation of Madagascar, according to documents from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Panama Papers investigation.

ICIJ collaborated with non-profit environmental science and conservation news organization Mongabay to explore emails, contracts and company records that showed how magnate Aziz Ismail moved millions of dollars among offshore companies.

Ismail, a French citizen born in Madagascar, entered Madagascar’s shrimp industry in 1973. His company, Unima, is now managed by his son Amyne Ismail and has subsidiaries around the world.

The company is the largest player in Madagascar’s $75 million shrimp industry, which has been criticized for damaging the environment, on the island nation where three in four people live on less than $1.90 a day.

Aziz Ismail also has owned a British Virgin Islands shell company Ergia Ltd. since 2000, according to files dating from 2000 to 2016 obtained from the law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Ismail became the sole shareholder of Ergia Ltd. in 2001 after setting up the company months earlier. Ismail and his son, Amyne, were directors of Ergia Ltd. The company did business in Madagascar and Monaco, according to documents.

The Panama Papers files include a 2014 contract under which Ismail’s company, Ergia Ltd. agreed to perform one year of administration and management services and “strategic thinking” on the development of Unima Europe, a Monaco company. In exchange, Unima Europe would pay Ergia Ltd. $1.32 million, according to the contract, which was signed by father and son.

It is unclear how Ergia Ltd. in the BVI would provide the consulting services described in the contract. The company appears to have no employees and no independent office, according to a slim financial statement of the company sent via to the law firm Mossack Fonseca to comply with record keeping requirements.

In effect, the Ismails appear to have shuffled the money between two companies they owned, from one country to another.

In a January 2016 email, Unima’s wealth managers asked Mossack Fonseca to transfer the $1.32 million owed to Ergia Ltd. under the consultancy agreement to another Ismail family company in Luxembourg.

Jason Braganza, an economist with nonprofit Tax Justice Network Africa, told ICIJ that if the consultancy agreement related to advice given for operations in Madagascar, “the immediate red flags here are that the companies are reporting revenues generated in Madagascar as being tax liable in BVI and Monaco.”

“This is tax avoidance 101,” he said.

The company produced little paperwork for Mossack Fonseca until 2012 when financial crime regulators in the British Virgin Islands contacted the Panama Papers law firm. The Financial Intelligence Agency did not tell Mossack Fonseca why Ergia Ltd. was under scrutiny. It demanded details on the owner, the company’s activities and its bank accounts, according to a document from the Panama Papers.

Responding to the BVI government’s 2012 request, Mossack Fonseca told regulators that Aziz Ismail owned Ergia Ltd. The law firm provided other information that included confidential financial statements that reveal some of the Unima group’s offshore activities.

At the end of 2010, for example, Ergia Ltd. reported a loss of $7.92 million. The company’s financial statement records no obvious expenses for employees. The documents also show that Ergia Ltd. was owed $7 million by a related company based in another low-tax country, Mauritius.

Tax inspectors from Madagascar and other experts said the use of multiple offshore companies raised the risk of lost taxes for one of the world’s poorest countries.

“In general, the use of two countries with zero tax (the BVI) or low tax (Monaco) is indicative” of an attempt by a group of related companies to pay as little tax as possible on its global activities, said Tovony Randriamanalina, an international tax researcher at Université Paris-Dauphine in France.

“This is exactly how groups avoid taxes in developing countries like Madagascar.”

The Ismails and Unima did not respond to repeated requests for comment, including questions about why government regulators were interested in Ergia Ltd. or why Unima’s Madagascar shrimp export business used offshore companies in the BVI and Mauritius.

Of Indian descent, the extended Ismail family has operated in Madagascar for five generations and is one of the country’s economic titans. Forbes last year ranked one of Ismail’s cousins as among Madagascar’s richest multi-millionaires. Unima’s founder, Aziz Ismail, supported former prime minister Emmanuel Rakotovahiny, according to the regional publication La Lettre de l’Ocean Indien.

Madagascar’s shrimp and prawns are the country’s fifth-most valuable export after vanilla, nickel, cloves and apparel. Every year, Unima sends thousands of tons of wild and cultivated tropical tiger shrimp from trawlers and aquaculture farms to Europe, Japan and the United States. Many of the prized crustaceans make their way to France, where the company’s products were the first from Madagascar to receive the French government’s quality approval.


Environmental scientists and local fishermen have criticized major players in the shrimp industry for depleting Madagascar’s natural resources. Shrimp trawling nets of the kind used by Unima drag along seabed floors in ways scientists have compared to clear-felling old-growth forests, Mongabay previously reported.

When a company profits from techniques that damage the environment and its owners store some of those profits offshore, it can compound the impact on the home country, creating economic losses on top of environmental damage, said Victor Galaz, associate professor at Stockholm University, who recently authored a study on the links between tax havens and environmental degradation in global fisheries.

“If this is part of an aggressive tax planning scheme, it means loss of revenues for the country where the actual economic activities are taking place,” Galaz told Mongabay and ICIJ after reading about the Unima and Ergia Ltd. transactions.



Read More: https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/panama-papers-reveal-offshore-payments-by-madagascars-seafood-king/?utm_content=bufferf5d5d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=Buffer+-+LinkedIn


993 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

Crowds to See Angola’s Latest Prisoner Show Corruption War Is Serious

par Kudzai Chinoda,

Crowds to See Angola’s Latest Prisoner Show Corruption War Is Serious

By

Candido Mendes and Henrique Almeida

  • Son of former president Dos Santos held pending investigation
  • Crackdown may mark sea change for nation mired in corruption

Dozens of Angolans crowd the gates of the capital’s main prison hospital, jockeying for a glimpse of an unexpected new inmate: the son of the man who ruled the southern African nation for almost four decades.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ son, Jose Filomeno, is only the most high-profile prisoner at the facility in Luanda, as Angola’s new president wages an anti-graft war that’s thrown the former ruling elite into disarray. TV crews, relatives in expensive cars and ordinary citizens have all flocked here, witnesses to a turning point for the oil-producing country that’s long been ranked one of the world’s most corrupt.

“I never thought I was ever going to see this,” Maria Fernanda, a 50-year-old local pharmacist, said of the high-profile detentions that also include a former police chief and an ex-transportation minister. “It’s unbelievable.”

The crackdown is the latest in a series of bold steps by President Joao Lourenco, who was elected last year and speaks of a “duty and obligation” to crush corruption to save Angola’s ailing economy. Arrests have extended to the Dos Santos family and its allies, who’re accused of amassing fortunes through their grip on the nation’s oil, diamonds and other resources.

Fancy Cars

“The arrest of Jose Filomeno dos Santos marks an important symbolic step in President Joao Lourenco’s anti-corruption drive,” Fitch Solutions Macro Research said in a note this week. While it shows the government “is driving some moderate improvement in transparency and in reducing corruption,” action against “a few high-profile individuals will not be sufficient to resolve what many describe as endemic levels of corruption within key Angolan institutions,” it said.

Sao Paulo, a medium-security prison hospital with 20-foot-tall walls that’s now being used for high-profile inmates as well as patients, is a far cry from the glitzy skyscrapers on Luanda’s oceanfront the elites are accustomed to. On a recent Friday, drivers of cars including a brand new Lexus and a Porsche Carrera turned off the dirt road into a visitors parking area -- a sign of the prisoners’ wealthy connections.

Leading the Battle

Not spotted visiting so far: Isabel dos Santos, the ex-president’s eldest daughter and Africa’s richest woman. She’s the target of a probe looking into a $38.2 million transfer that was made at state-owned oil company Sonangol before she was fired as chairwoman last year. She has called the allegations politically motivated.

Lourenco, 64, has said the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola needs to lead the anti-graft battle. That’s “even if the first to fall are militants or even senior officials of the party that have committed crimes,” he told delegates on Sept. 8 as he replaced Dos Santos as its head.

He’s also pushing for funds he said were illegally moved abroad to be returned to Africa’s second-biggest oil producer, warning that Angolans who don’t comply by year’s end will face prosecution. Central bank Governor Jose Massano estimates at least $30 billion is held abroad, including legal deposits.

Reversing Impunity

Recent moves show the country “is finally moving in the direction of accountability and reversing decades of impunity, nepotism, patronage and corruption,” said Paula Roque, an independent political analyst who formerly worked on Angola for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. But the actions are addressing “just the tip of the iceberg” and “other cases need investigation and competent, swift and structured legal action,” she said.

 

There’s some dissent. Last week, Bento Kangamba -- a former army general and the owner of football team Kabuscorp Sport Clube do Palanca -- criticized what he called Lourenco’s heavy-handed approach.

“We won’t allow things that have nothing to do with the good of society and aim to destroy the party and its militants to happen,” Kangamba, who organized the ex-president’s rallies, told Voice of America.

Jose Filomeno, 40, is accused of trying to siphon $1.5 billion from the central bank by claiming the money would help secure $35 billion of financing for Angola, the Finance Ministry said in April. The move allegedly occurred days before Lourenco was elected president, as Angola grappled with zero economic growth, soaring inflation and a dollar shortage.

Banking Accusations

The first $500 million was transferred in August 2017 from Angola’s central bank to an HSBC Holdings Plc account in the U.K. That initial installment was blocked by U.K. authorities suspecting foul play, and part of the $500 million has since been returned to Angola.

Jose Filomeno vowed to cooperate with the investigations. He now spends much of his time in the prison’s VIP section, where he and others watch TV and eat food brought by their relatives, according to a guard who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The guard said the ex-president’s son typically declines visitors and responds to prison officials with single words. Former Transportation Minister Augusto Tomas is more gregarious, spending time with his relatives, friends and religious officials, he said.

Lourenco, popularly known as the “terminator,” isn’t just going after the big fish. A public official was arrested this week for allegedly seeking bribes of just 1,000 kwanzas ($3.32) from candidates applying to be professors in one province, the local Novo Jornal newspaper reported Thursday, citing the prosecutor’s office.

On the day Dos Santos’ son was arrested, Lourenco presented what he dubbed a “New Angola” to potential investors in New York.

“Angola has entered a new political cycle,” he said, touting economic reforms and the war on corruption. “In only one year, this is the Angola that I present to you, with a new business climate that is investor-friendly.”

(Updates analyst’s comment in paragraph under Reversing Impunity sub-headline.)



969 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)

96-million abalone poached in South Africa since 2000

par Julian Rademeyer,

Over the past 17 years, poachers have stripped South African coastal waters of at least 96-million abalone, according to a new report released today by TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade monitoring network. 

Efforts to curb the illegal trade have roundly failed. Once abundant, the population of South African abalone (Haliotis midae), a sea molusc, is declining at unprecedented levels. 

On average two thousand tonnes of abalone are bagged annually by poachers – 20 times the legal take – in an illicit industry estimated to be worth at least US$60million a year. Abalone is prized as a delicacy in parts of Asia, notably China.

Driven by sophisticated transnational criminal networks and local gangs, the illegal abalone trade has been fuelled by deeply entrenched socio-economic disparities in the Western Cape, bitterly contested fishing quotas, drugs, and gang violence.

Despite the very real threat that South African abalone could go extinct if poaching levels continue unabated, it is not currently listed on CITES and beyond South Africa the trade in Haliotis midae remains unregulated. That lack of regulation means that once abalone shipments have been smuggled out of South Africa to neighbouring African countries, they can easily be laundered without fear of law enforcement action.

Read the full report and watch the documentary here: https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/empty-shells/ 

217 mots

Annexe double-spread.jpg
Annexe Empty Shells overview.jpg
Tags:
Discuter sur ce sujet  (1 réponse)

African tourism alarmed by rhino, elephant losses

par Kudzai Chinoda,

African tourism alarmed by rhino, elephant losses


CAPE TOWN (AFP) - 

Animal conservation in Africa has suffered several setbacks in recent months prompting experts at an African tourism conference this week in Cape Town to warn about the cost to the travel industry.

"Obviously it's negative," said the African Tourism Association's (ATA) managing director Naledi Khabo, who spoke at the inaugural event organised by Airbnb.

"Whether it's people or animals, you see them being killed or slaughtered in such a terrible manner -- it has a negative impact."

Kenya was thrust into the conservation spotlight when an effort to move endangered black rhinos between national parks, launched with great fanfare in June, left 11 of the animals dead.

"It's very clear it was not managed well by my officers -- and we took action on that," said Kenya's Tourism Minister Najib Balala, who was the public face of the project.

Balala insisted that tourists considering visiting would not be deterred by the incident but industry experts have warned that such setbacks could hurt the continent's appeal.

"It does impact the overall pan-African perception as well, which in turn has a negative impact on tourism," added Khabo.

The cost of environmental crime to developing countries is estimated to be more than $70 billion a year.

Africa is at the epicentre of global poaching and trafficking of many species, with elephants coveted for their ivory tusks and rhinos sought for their horns which are used in traditional Asian medicine.

- 'A very aggressive approach' -

Botswana, which has Africa's largest elephant population, is on the frontline of the battle against the illicit ivory trade.

But it was recently rocked by a report from Elephants Without Borders that a poaching spree had wiped out as many as 90 of the animals.

While the government and some scientists strongly dis**d the findings and insisted they were overstated, the damage had already been done.

"What is sad, particularly about the Botswana incident, is that the headlines came out about what happened -- but what we don't understand is why and what next," said travel author Anita Mendiratta.

In South Africa, rangers have been forced to take ever more extreme steps to protect the country's safari endowment alongside an effort to prosecute the criminal bigwigs profiting from the lucrative trade.

Khabo, who speaks for the African tourism industry, praised South Africa's anti-poaching successes which have included three high-profile arrests of kingpins linked to poaching.

"It's critical that, on a policy level, the government and the tourism boards take a very aggressive approach and to have truly severe consequences to individuals who are found guilty," she told AFP.

Balala, the Kenyan tourism minister, said his country's anti-poaching efforts were also proving effective.

"The numbers of rhinos in terms of protection has gone up -- over 1,200 rhinos we have in Kenya from almost 300 30 years ago. We have 35,000 elephants, 30 years ago we had only 16,000."

- 'Traveller activism' -

Mendiratta said that effective anti-poaching was increasingly being demanded by tourists.

"When it comes to poaching, when it comes to elephant riding even, travellers are saying 'it's not right'," she said.

"Traveller activism has become an important part of our industry."

Loserian Laizer, who spent nine years as a ranger in Tanzania before joining the Safarisource service which connects travellers directly to safari organisers, said poaching can make wildlife tourism difficult.

In South Africa's Kruger National Park for example, visitors have complained about the noise made by the increasing number of airborne anti-poaching patrols.

"But I can say we are winning the fight against poaching," said Laizer. "There's a big up turn in people understanding we need to protect the wildlife."

Tanzania was working to educate visitors about the perils of poaching and the risks of purchasing ivory and rhino horn products, he said.

Laizer said the threat to wildlife and the impact on the tourism industry did not just come from poaching or conservation blunders.

"A problem is people trying to build many facilities to accommodate the tourists and the impact is we are destroying the environment so we need to control that," he said.

© 2018 AFP


683 mots

Discuter sur ce sujet  (0 réponses)