Apartheid Guns and Money A Tale of Profit

In its last decades, the apartheid regime was confronted with an existential threat. While internal resistance to the last whites-only government grew, mandatory international sanctions prohibited sales of strategic goods and arms to South Africa. To counter this, a global covert network of nearly fifty countries was built. In complete secrecy, allies in corporations, banks, governments and intelligence agencies across the world helped illegally supply guns and move cash in one of history's biggest money laundering schemes. Whistleblowers were assassinated and ordinary people suffered.

Weaving together archival material, interviews and newly declassified documents, Apartheid Guns and Money exposes some of the darkest secrets of apartheid's economic crimes, their murderous consequences, and those who profited: heads of state, arms dealers, aristocrats, bankers, spies, journalists and secret lobbyists. These revelations, and the difficult questions they pose, will both allow and force the new South Africa to confront its past.

Hennie van Vuuren is a researcher and anti-corruption activist. Formerly director at the Institute for Security Studies, he is director of Open Secrets, a non-profit seeking private sector accountability for economic crime and related human rights violations. He is co-author of The Devil in the Detail: How the Arms Deal Changed Everything.

Introduction: On the Trail of Profit

THE SECRET STATE
Securocrats, Sanctions and Assassinations
The Secret Economy
Oil and Other Foreign Affairs

BANKING ON APARTHEID
Bunkers, Bankers and Gold
The Arms Money Machine

THE BIG FIVE
France
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
The United States of America
The United Kingdom
The People's Republic of China (PRC)

PROXIES, PLAYERS ADN PARIAHS
Proxies and Other Players
Pariahs

THE LONG SHADOW
The Long Shadow

Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index