The Long and Winding Rhodes – #4 (Running Governments and a Diamond Cartel) – Oppenheimer families’ fingers are all over

https://economicbrain.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/the-long-and-winding-rhodes-4-running-governments-and-a-diamond-cartel/ - Below are excerpts

The problem with Diamonds is not that they’re rare — but that they aren’t. Hence, the cartel. Cecil Rhodes understood this from the very start, and was ruthlessly and restlessly ahead of the game in getting what he wanted, in order to further (naturally) the expansion of the British empire What flows from this, besides blood, arms, is history. Up til now. This first article is just to document how the U.S. Clinton Administration helped persuade the UN to play into to the concept that De Beers had some humanitarian concerns related to African countries. Rhodes Scholar ex-President Bill Clinton did well in helping the overall plan…

The problem with diamonds isn’t their scarcity, but their abundance. They are found not only in geological formations like volcanic pipes that can be fenced off and mined, but also in vast alluvial areas like river beds or beaches, places that can’t be restricted. When Europe ruled Africa, the cartel had little problem making arrangements with colonial administrators to police or close down freelance diamond gathering.

After African colonies got their independence, the cartel came to terms with dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko, whose police kept out — and occasionally massacred — suspected smugglers. Where governments were less cooperative or capable, the cartel commissioned mercenaries to suppress, often by maiming or killing, prospective diamond hunters.

Where governments were less cooperative or capable, the cartel commissioned mercenaries to suppress, often by maiming or killing, prospective diamond hunters. At one point in the 1960s, the cartel gave bounties to remnants of the Katanga gendarmerie to hunt down “smugglers” in Angola…The cartel now has found an ingenious new mechanism for achieving its ends: the United Nations. After spending months laying the conceptual groundwork in the media, as well as working through the Clinton administration and human-rights communities, it has convinced the U.N. Security Council to impose a global ban on “undocumented” gem diamonds from “conflict zones.”

Instead of using colonial administrations, dictators or mercenary gangs to stop Africans from gathering and selling stones, the U.N. will use its resources (backed, no doubt, by the cartel’s own contingent of lawyers and detectives) to accomplish that task. The cartel managed this favorable outcome by playing on the guilt of the West. The idea that “blood diamonds” were responsible for ferocious civil wars in Africa was too much for altruists and activists in developed nations. Mr. Clinton, meanwhile, saw diamonds as an opportunity to enhance his own standing among these groups. On July 21, he called for “an international conference to consider practical approaches to breaking the link between the illicit trade in diamonds and armed conflict . . .” Mr. Clinton’s press release made no secret of the liaison with the diamond cartel, noting that at a May conference in South Africa, the U.S., Britain and Belgium, among others, had agreed with De Beers upon the importance of establishing a global certification scheme for diamonds.

Apparently De Beers hadn’t figured out to extend the “Forbidden Zone” out far enough to sea, therefore Collins’ discovery (and enterprise; he then started to mine smaller diamonds) was able to get up and running. However, De Beers wasn’t going to quit that easy, and later managed to squeeze the Texan out of business by threatening the Israeli manufacturers to make a choice: If they took from the Texan company — they can forget receiving DeBeers diamonds for manufacture.

This then bankrupted Collins’ (the Texan’s) company – which, being in distress, Harry Oppenheimer (below) bought out. Harry being the son of Ernest Oppenheimer.

Please do so and begin to understand just how much this DeBeers company (and with Oppenheimer involvement, i.e., Sir Ernst and Harry both come up in the narrative) is involved in foreign government and what truly is a cartel, double-dealing, dirty playing, etc., and involving any number of South African governments in transition. In one case a man’s contact in Portugal died suddenly on an operating table. Namibia, Angola, Tanganyika (Tanzania), Israel, London, New York, Portugal, unbelievable stuff.

Just a sample, challengers from Jolis, Winston, Collins (all Americans) appear to have been squeezed out — it was necessary to seize control of foreign countries to do so, of course, double-dealing, who knows how many people were killed in the process also:

Anglo’s involvement with the ANC prior to the 1994 election

https://behind-the-news.com/the-changing-of-the-guard-part-4-of-a-4-part-series/

From the moment of the unbanning of the ANC, the whole organization was enveloped by the Anglo complex. Between February 1990, and the elections of April 1994, Anglo poured the sum of R364 million rand ($180 million) into the coffers of the ANC.

At the same time, Tiny Rowland of the British multinational Lonrho was also funding the ANC. Lonrho is within the Rothschild orbit, and is a business partner of Anglo, with extensive interests in South Africa, covering gold, coal and platinum. The ANC was given $20 million by Lonrho to move their offices from Lusaka, Zambia to Johannesburg to consolidate their internal support. The idea was to set up a political machinery in South Africa, and that costs a lot of money.

[This is the same building where the Shell House massacre occurred – “South Africa March 28 1994 Pre-Election Zulu-ANC Violence in Johannesburg”, https://youtu.be/H18dCmjTlmo (embedded)]

>>16298818

>[This is the same building where the Shell House massacre occurred – “South Africa March 28 1994 Pre-Election Zulu-ANC Violence in Johannesburg”, https://youtu.be/H18dCmjTlmo (embedded)]

Remember, Mandela gave the order

“South Africa-Mandela Attacked Re 'Shoot To Kill'”- https://youtu.be/6Xe8ZnzDzro

>>16298769

>This first article is just to document how the U.S. Clinton Administration helped persuade the UN to play into to the concept that De Beers had some humanitarian concerns related to African countries.

New York Times, 1977 article – US delegate to the UN was Oppenheimer’s guest in South Africa

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/16/archives/oppenheimer-apartheid-foe-faces-snag-political-rebuff-is-seen-as.html

Prime Minister John Vorster, in a remarkable and much‐criticized outburst in parliament, questioned the executive's loyalty to South Africa.

During an attack on the Carter Administration and on those in South Africa who support its demand for full political participation by blacks, the Prime Minister described Mr. Oppenheimer as “the spiritual father” of the Progressive‐Reform Party, the most liberal group in parliament. “It is time,” Mr. Vorster added, “that he told South Africa where he stands and what he is doing.”

Mr. Vorster declined to retract his comments, and it was generally assumed that he intended the remark as a warning to Mr. Oppenheimer in the wake of the visit to South Africa of Andrew Young, chief United States delegate to the United Nations. Mr. Young spent two days in Johannesburg as Mr. Oppenheimer's guest.

>>16298769

>This first article is just to document how the U.S. Clinton Administration helped persuade the UN to play into to the concept that De Beers had some humanitarian concerns related to African countries

Harry Oppenheimer : The King of Diamonds (USSR dealings) – Edwards Jay Epstein Diary, December 4, 1978

Keep in mind, the Soviet Union provided the ANC with weapons and training.

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diary/opp.htm

If one man can be said to control the world's diamonds it is Harry Frederick Oppenheimer.

The block-long building, with its imposing neocolonial facade and marble entranceway, looked much more like a government institution than the headquarters of the mining company. As it turned out, it housed in its offices far more power than most government buildings. Indeed, Oppenheimer even had a private treaty with the Soviet Union, although the terms have never been publicly revealed.

I had come to South Africa to write a book on the diamond business. Oppenheimer's father, Ernest Oppenheimer, had developed the monopoly, De Beers, that runs it. Oppenheimer explained that it was no secret that De Beers acquired through subsidiaries all the uncut diamonds that the Soviet Union wanted to sell on the open market.

"We paid the Soviet Union more than half a billion dollars last year," he answered. "This is not a sum it can easily replace, and I can see no conceivable reason why it would want to abandon such a profitable arrangement." His logic was brutally direct: De Beers provided the Soviet Union with its single largest source of hard currency (only petroleum was a more important export for Soviet trade in 1977)If the Soviet Union withdrew its diamonds from De Beers, it would have to find other outlets to sell its uncut diamonds. And if it precariously dumped these diamonds on the market, the price would collapse, and the Soviet Union would lose an important source of foreign exchange. "What could the Russians possibly gain by competing with us?" he asked rhetorically.

He further pointed out that De Beers provided the Soviets with certain types of industrial diamonds that were important for drilling and producing electronic wiring. Its Siberian mines apparently did not produce these strategically important diamonds. By selling gem stones to De Beers, the Soviet Union received the credits for importing the industrial diamonds it needed.

The Soviet Union also had considerable influence in other diamond producing areas in Black Africa, such as Angola [ANC had camps in Angola, the most notorious was Quatro]. I wondered if the logic of the arrangement between De Beers and the Soviets required the Soviets to use their power in those countries to help De Beers retain its control over diamond mines there.

Oppenheimer was concerned with the possibility of the United Nations imposing economic sanctions against South Africa, since his empire exported billions of dollars worth of South African commodities. He did not believe, however, that they could affect the diamond trade. "I can think of no commodity less susceptible to dangers from UN sanctions than diamonds," he said. He was stating the obvious: diamonds were after all one of the most convenient commodities to transport across borders. For example, an entire month of production of diamonds from the Namibian mines, worth $40 million, could be smuggled out of Namibia in an attache case.

Oppenheimer also gave little credence to the fear that De Beers might be running out of quality diamonds. He pointed out that De Beers was developing vast new mines in the Botswana desert, which he planned to visit the next day. These Botswana mines would provide the world with an ample supply of diamonds well into the 1990s.

Oppenheimer insisted that the black-white confrontation in Africa would not present a problem for De Beers. He termed the arrangement between De Beers and Black African nations "Mutually advantageous." He further suggested that it might be useful for me to inspect at first hand some of De Beers' mining operations in independent nations to more fully understand how the "arrangement" works. He offered to provide me air transportation and access to the mines in Botswana, Lesotho and other independent nations.

[take note, Lesotho did not lose its independence in 1994 unlike other Bantustans/Homelands in South Africa like Bophuthatswana, Transkei, etc.]

>>16298818

>The ANC was given $20 million by Lonrho to move their offices from Lusaka, Zambia to Johannesburg to consolidate their internal support. The idea was to set up a political machinery in South Africa, and that costs a lot of money.

Lonrho’s History – Connections to MI6 and the British Royals

https://ebin.pub/tiny-rowland-the-ugly-face-of-neocolonialism-in-africa-0943235081-9780943235080.html

Sir Basil Smallpeice was taken on by Lonrho as deputy chairman in 1972, after the near-collapse of Lonrho in a criminal scandal. Smallpeice had been Comptroller and Managing Director of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and Chairman of Cunard Steam-Ship Co. At the time of his appointment to Lonrho, Smallpeice was Administrative Adviser to the Queen’s Household, or, as Rowland later put it, “Comptroller of Buckingham Palace,” a position he held from 1964 until 1980.3 Gerald Percy played an essential role in Lonrho’s African business. Since the 1950s, he was an Africa operative of MI-6. Born in 1928, he is the son of Lord William Percy, 5th son of the 7th Duke of Northumberland, one of the most ancient and powerful families in Britain. His relative. Sir Algernon Percy, became Lord Steward of Her Majesty’s Household in 1973. Gerald Percy emigrated to South Africa in 1951, married the daughter of a prominent industrialist, and joined the British South Africa Company, Cecil Rhodes’ old firm, where he was personal assistant to the chairman. Lord Robins. On more than one occasion, the dubious activities of Rowland’s company have brought frantic Royal appeals to protect the Windsors from contamination by their Lonrho connection. On November 19, 1969, two senior members of the British Establishment paid a visit to Angus Ogilvy. Lord Burke Trend, Secretary of the Cabinet since 1963, and Lord Greenhill of Harrow, Permanent Undersecretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, were acting officially on behalf of the Queen.

Though pressured to resign from Lonrho, Ogilvy did not at that time. But there were more scandals to come. In 1971, Lonrho treasurer Fred Butcher and two other company officials were arrested in the Republic of South Africa, on charges of fraud against minority shareholders in Lonrho subsidiaries. The documentation was precise; Lonrho had been caught red-handed.

After Butcher’s arrest, an evidently panicked Princess Alexandra telephoned South Africa, awakening a journalist in the middle of the night, to try to estimate the damage. The Royal links of Lonrho were openly talked about in Africa at the time. The Rhodesian monthly Property and Finance wrote, “As P&F has reported several times, the British Royal Family is directly involved in the entire affair. The Hon. Angus Ogilvy, an executive director, was its representative on the Lonrho board; and Sir Basil Smallpeice (former chairman of BOAC and then of ill-fated Cunard), who is a close adviser to the Royal Family, was appointed to the board last year at the insistence of the Bank of England.”7 In the hubbub after Butcher’s arrest, “a small notice in the [South African] Government Gazette appeared saying that a London investment company handling the risk capital of the British Royal Family had quietly removed substantial Royal assets from So. Africa to Britain.”

“Government of South Africa and The United Nations in South Africa sign the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework”

https://southafrica.un.org/en/177999-government-south-africa-and-united-nations-south-africa-sign-un-sustainable-development

19 April 2022

General Assembly resolution 72/279 elevates the UNSDCF as “the most important instrument for implementation of the UN development activities at country level.

The Presidency of South Africa and the United Nations in South Africa today signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) at the headquarters of the Government Communication Information System (GCIS) in Pretoria.

The ceremony, led by the Minister in the Presidency, Mr. Mondli Gungubele, the outgoing Resident Coordinator for the UN South Africa office, Ms. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, and the Acting Resident Coordinator, Dr Ayodele Odusola, began with a moment of silence for those affected by the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal.

The UNSDCF is a partnership framework comprehensively detailing the works of the UN in South Africa for the period 2020-2025 following a detailed consultation process that included the private sector, civil society, academia and research institutions, women, and youth.

In her remarks, Ms. Bekele-Thomas spoke of the need for “coherent and critical results-based programming based on national needs and priorities” before noting that “our dream is becoming a reality today.”

Delivering the keynote address, Minister Gungubele emphasised the commitment of Government to implementing the UNSCDF while highlighting this “truly consultative process that is an integration of global, continental and national goals.”

Following the actual signing of the Framework, the UN Resident Coordinator (a.i.), Dr Ayodele Odusola, emphasized South Africa’s unique relationship with the United Nations before reminding those present that “effective implementation of the cooperation framework will depend on strong accountability mechanism’.

General Assembly resolution 72/279 elevates the UNSDCF as “the most important instrument for planning and implementation of the UN development activities at country level in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda).”

In closing the ceremony, Dr Ayodele noted that “coherence coordination and collaboration is why it is very important for us to deliver together.”

#####

For interviews and media enquiries, please contact Zeenat Abdool, UN South Africa - Associate Public Information Officer, at abdool@un.org or +27 827788080

United Nations - The Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa

https://southafrica.un.org/en/about/about-the-un

“The Sustainable Development Goals are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the earth’s environment and climate, and ensure that people everywhere can enjoy peace and prosperity. These are the goals the UN is working on in South Africa:”

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 1

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

Human rights NGO Amnesty International’s reporting on the case of Moroccan journalist Omar Radi has thrown into light the organization’s clear pro-Western bias. A closer look at the history of Amnesty International [AI] and its reporting on alleged human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as other Global South states, reveals clear double standards and a neo-colonial standpoint towards developing countries.

American human rights lawyer and former Amnesty International board member Francis Boyle said in a 2002 interview for Global Policy Forum: “Amnesty International is primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes money. Third comes getting more members. Fourth, internal turf battles. And then finally, human rights, genuine human rights concerns.”

On July 2, the government released a second statement calling on Amnesty International to back up their claims with tangible evidence. The statement said the NGO’s allegations “are in line with the strategy Amnesty International has been employing for years against Morocco’s interests, attempting to undermine the country’s internationally-recognized progress in the field of human rights.”

Morocco’s government reiterated its belief that the NGO is aiming to become a “political actor” in Morocco and is operating with a clear agenda after Amnesty launched a targeted social media campaign in Morocco.

Double standards in reporting US and UK privacy breaches

The use of spyware and invasion of personal privacy is not new. However, Amnesty International’s loud and strongly-worded protestations are. In 2013, the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden shone the spotlight on both the US and the UK.

The leaks revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had accessed the telephone records of millions of American citizens. Meanwhile, the British intelligence service, GCHQ, has been accessing private information online through a surveillance program known as Prism.

Amnesty International brought a claim against the UK after it was revealed that the British intelligence service had hacked the communications of an Amnesty staff member. The claim was accompanied by a gentle reminder.

A press release dated August 29, 2013, gave the US and the UK a softly toned reprimand, in sharp contrast to the outrage and vitriolic condemnation of Morocco’s alleged breaches of the right to privacy. The double standard reflects Amnesty international’s pro-Western lens and unwillingness to bite back at those who pay the bills.

Morocco World News asked Amnesty International about social media campaigns and mainstream media campaigns: “Amnesty International launched a series of targeted posts warning Moroccan journalists about spyware but the same did not happen in the US or the UK in 2013 after Amnesty found that both countries were using spyware. Why the difference in handling?”

Amnesty International declined to comment.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 2

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

AIUSA and Israel

The Moroccan government’s theory that the report and one-sided investigation are part of a “defamation campaign” is understandable, bearing in mind Amnesty’s history of manipulating investigations and campaigns to fit certain political agendas.

The shocking truth about Amnesty International dates back decades. Boyle, a founding member of the Amnesty International Middle East Coordination groups, shared the story of his disillusionment with Morocco World News. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, breaking international law and violating human rights laws. Both Amnesty International and Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) stood by in silence as over 20,000 people died.

Boyle contacted Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride, calling on him to intervene with AI in London. MacBride persuaded the general secretary of AI to appoint Boyle as a human rights consultant for AI’s work in the Middle East.

At the first meeting, Boyle warned the AI Mid-East Co-Group that they must respond strongly to the atrocities Israeli forces were carrying out in the Middle East, with full USA support. “Soon thereafter, I found out that the Members of the AIUSA Mid-East Co-Group had been instructed to have nothing more to do with me by a direct order coming from the AIUSA Board of Directors,” Boyle recounted.

Boyle outlined how AIUK and AIUSA consistently failed to crack down on human rights violations and instances of Israeli government-approved torture against Palestinians for over a decade.

“I am confident the pro-Israel groups threatened the AI Secretary General that they would have their members withhold or reduce their contributions to AI and AIUSA if AI/London did not reign in its pathetic, pitiful, and meager criticisms of Israel. While I was on the AIUSA Board, AIUSA paid about 20% of the budget for AI/London. He who pays the piper calls the tune,” the human rights lawyer explained.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 3

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

War mongering

On December 19, 1990, the world collectively shivered in horror after Amnesty International released a chilling report of atrocities in the Middle East.

“Iraqi forces in occupied Kuwait have tortured and executed hundreds of unarmed civilians, some of them children, arrested thousands of others and cut off 312 premature babies from hospital incubators, according to a report released here today by Amnesty International,” the Washington Post wrote.

Boyle had seen the report ahead of publication and found that it lacked tangible evidence, was rife with technical errors, and was missing facts. Boyle feared that the US and the UK would use the report as evidence to provoke a war with Iraq, and warned Amnesty International UK not to publish it. The NGO ignored the warnings and proceeded to launch what Boyle calls a “Disinformation” campaign against Iraq.

“From this episode I could only conclude that AI/London deliberately intended the Dead-Babies Report and Campaign to be used in order to tip the balance in favor of war against Iraq,” he said.

At the height of the US warmongering campaign, Amnesty International had no qualms about confidently stating that it had “verified” the accusations peddled by a Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah. In a recriminating 82-page report it published in December 1990, Amnesty International left no doubt in the minds of readers that the evidence was airtight.

The report was strongly worded, and included no hint that the sources may not be reliable. It was presented as a substantiated and wholly “verified” report whose legitimacy was beyond doubt.

Seven US Senators used the spurious testimony, legitimized by Amnesty International, to justify their support for the war. President George H.W. Bush used the report on six occasions in the following weeks. Then, on January 9, 1990, the president cited the report in a letter he sent to university newspapers across the US.

Some time later, it became clear that the stories of Iraqi soldiers unplugging premature babies were fabricated. The 15-year-old who peddled the allegations turned out to be the daughter of the then Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Amnesty then launched a coverup campaign to disassociate itself from the political machinations the report had facilitated.

Perhaps, like former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in May 1995, Amnesty International thinks that the price “was worth it” to build “democracy” and establish human rights in Iraq, further corroborating the idea of Amnesty International as a neo-colonial tool.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 4

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

Apartheid and Amnesty

Boyle fears that nothing has changed at Amnesty International in the intervening years. “For all I know, the same people at AI/London who waged this Dead-Babies Disinformation Campaign against Iraq are still at AI/London producing more disinformation against Arab/Muslim states in the Middle East in order to further the political and economic interests of the United States, Britain, and Israel. Because of its Dead-Babies Disinformation Campaign against Iraq and its ensuing coverup, Amnesty International will never have any credibility in the Middle East!”

Boyle believes a similar campaign of disinformation and refusal to take on diplomatic heavyweights, such as the US, defined Amnesty’s response to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

According to Boyle, Amnesty was the only human rights body in the world not to intervene in the battle to end apartheid. The NGO claimed they could not work against this type of government.

“But the truth of the matter was that Amnesty International is headquartered in London, and AIUSA is headquartered in New York and Washington. The biggest political supporters of the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa were the governments of Britain, the United States, and Israel. Likewise, the biggest sources of economic investments in the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa came from Britain and the United States. Once again, he who pays the piper calls the tune,” Boyle said, bringing the argument back to funding and political influence.

The human rights professor outlined Amnesty International’s refusal to report on violations in Ireland and Puerto Rico, echoing his fundamental belief that Amnesty International exists as a neo-colonial global policeman, unwilling to bite the hand that feeds it.

“Effectively, Amnesty International and AIUSA function as tools for the imperialist, colonial and genocidal policies of the United States, Britain, and Israel,” he said.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 5

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

Iraq as a victim of international politics – in part through reckless reporting

Amnesty International’s report fueled the US decision to start a war that resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Iraqi civilians. The international community and Amnesty International, did not, however, learn from the mistakes of the 1991 Iraq war.

In 2003, the US administration declared their intention to invade Iraq again, enjoying support from the UK despite opposition from a number of fellow UN member states, including France. The UK, under Prime Minister Tony Blair, tried and failed to secure support from the UN Security Council but pledged support for the US regardless.

The operation to invade Iraq was, for the UK, based on spurious evidence that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The US aimed to remove Saddam Hussein from power, a motive the UK could not legally support.

Years later, the Chilcot Inquiry found that the claims Iraq was developing WMDs were baseless, meaning Blair had led his country to war with lies in pursuit of the US agenda in the wake of 9/11.

Despite the repercussions of the first Iraq war and Amnesty International’s involvement in lighting its fuse, the NGO remained fairly neutral on the prospect of a second war in Iraq based on the spurious evidence that Iraq was developing WMDs.

On March 19, 2003, Amnesty International General Secretary Irene Khan penned an open letter to Blair, President George W. Bush, and Saddam Hussein. The letter does not warn against going to war with Iraq, but sets a low bar in gently prompting both sides to adhere to human rights laws during the conflict.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 6

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

‘Uncorroborated and highly manipulated information’

Amnesty International’s tendency to side with the money and the controlling politics of Western powers reared its ugly head again in 2018 when the NGO released a series of reports on the civil society protests in Nicaragua.

Conscientious objector and anti-war activist Camilo Mejia wrote an open letter to Amnesty International, accusing the NGO of “destabilizing” the situation in Nicaragua and “contributing to the chaos in which the nation finds itself.”

Mejia said the Amnesty International reports on the protests created a misleading narrative, disseminating a strong anti-government message which covered up the complexities of the situation on the ground.

“Amnesty International’s assertions are mostly based on either testimony by anti-government witnesses and victims or the uncorroborated and highly manipulated information emitted by US-financed anti-government media outlets and non-profit organisations collectively known as ‘civil society,’” he wrote.

Mejia emphasized that the vast majority of news organizations and sources Amnesty International cited in its two reports on the unraveling political chaos and violence in Nicaragua are funded by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and, by extension, the US.

The anti-war protestor and Iraq War veteran shone the spotlight on Washington’s historic hegemony in Latin America, arguing that, to preserve US dominance through economic control, the capitalist superpower aimed to sabotage the potential success of an independent Nicaragua.

In 2019, Mejia published a report in collaboration with the Alliance for Global Justice in which he set out the disinformation in Amnesty International’s Nicaragua reports, highlighting the clear bias and gaping holes in evidence.

Amnesty International’s intervention in Nicaragua, and refusal to see the situation as anything other than a black and white narrative of good vs. bad, reflects the neo-colonial, imperialist lens through which the NGO views the world.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 7

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

Money, money, money

Amnesty International relies on donations and membership payments for survival. Access to detailed information about the nationality of donors and members is nigh on impossible. However, the little transparent information that is available strongly suggests the NGO’s membership is largely based in Western countries, including Australia (250,000), Canada, Sweden (upwards of 100,000), and Germany. Of Amnesty International’s two million members, nearly half come from the Netherlands (255,000), the US (350,000), and the UK (200,000) alone.

The organization’s worldview, including prejudices and stereotyping, echoes that of its membership, who, sitting comfortably in a warm armchair, credit card in hand, feel that they are doing their part to help in far away crises: Crises that affect other people, in other cultures, and other countries.

However, the question of funding goes much deeper than that of membership. The organization’s neo-colonial, teacher-child view on developing countries echoes and takes its cue from US foreign policy, among others.

Amnesty International’s 2017 financial review states, “We are independent of any government, ideology, economic interest and religion. Our only interest is in achieving human rights for all.” The review also explicitly states that the NGO does not accept donations from governments or political organizations. However, previous reports show that this is not the case.

A 2017 report by Reseau International shows that Amnesty International received funding from the “National Foundation for American Democracy (NED), which is officially funded by the United States Congress, through the budget of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).”

The Reseau International report explains that the NGO is far from transparent in terms of access to information, and that information about donors is increasingly difficult to find. “Today, it is almost impossible to find direct evidence that in 2008, the Israeli branch of Amnesty International accepted a donation of NIS 130,186 (£30,277) from the State Department of the United States government,” the report notes.

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Israel, the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), the US government, through other associations, and the Norwegian Telethon are among other Western organizations with lobbying weight.

MWN Investigation Reveals Amnesty International’s Reckless Double Standards – Part 8

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/07/308817/mwn-investigation-reveals-amnesty-internationals-reckless-double-standards

Below are excerpts

Where is the money going?

In 2010, facing fierce international criticism for its response to human rights abuses in Iraq at the hands of British and US soldiers, Amnesty International made the decision to overhaul its management. Among the heads to roll were former General Secretary Irene Khan, the organization’s first Muslim leader, and her deputy, Kate Gilmore.

The organization paid Khan £533,103 to leave Amnesty International, while Gilmore was sent packing with £325,244. The massive payoffs sent waves of doubt throughout Amnesty’s membership, with many wondering how much of their donations went to paying corporate-sized salaries and hush money.

In a less-than-transparent statement, Amnesty International’s international executive committee (IEC) chairman, Peter Pack said the "substantial majority (of the payments) reflected contractual entitlements.”

Before the giant cash-in-hand payoff, Khan was earning £132,490 a year, without bonuses, relocation grants, and support for expenses. Upon leaving Amnesty International, Khan stepped straight into a chair on the British Charity Commission board, having been appointed by the British government via the Cabinet Office.

The former general secretary’s replacement, however, has topped the City of London-style salary. Salil Shetty earns £192,800 a year on top of a £7,800 annual housing allowance.

When asked directly how far donors can “restrict” their contributions and where the 4% of restricted donations come from, Amnesty refused to comment.

MWN also asked the NGO where the 10% classed as “other income” comes from. Amnesty again refused to comment, sending only a link to another defamatory report about Morocco.

Moving forward

The NGO’s consistent refusal to engage with questions over its lack of transparency and bias is reflective of a lack of respect for Morocco and the journey it has made, and continues to make, since its independence in 1956.

It would be ludicrous to deny that human rights violations go on in Morocco, or in any other country in the world. No state, however established its democracy or developed its economy, is immune. Striving to eradicate human rights violations will be humanity’s mission for centuries to come. This said, every state, however established its democracy or developed its economy, should be viewed and judged on an equal basis.

Amnesty International, however, is willing only to see, and actively look for, the negative aspects of Moroccan policy and security, in line with its own entrenched imperialist world view of Muslim-majority and Global South countries.

Until the NGO revitalizes its world view with a modern, impartial perspective based on truth rather than international agendas and neo-colonial attitudes, the blindly negative, condemnatory narrative about these countries will not change and Amnesty International will not achieve the global impact its noble goals deserve.

>>16399968

>Human rights NGO Amnesty International’s reporting on the case of Moroccan journalist Omar Radi has thrown into light the organization’s clear pro-Western bias.

>>16369559

Bertha Foundation, Clooney Foundation and Amnesty International’s Support of Omar Radi

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR OMAR RADI, BERTHA CHALLENGE FELLOW

https://berthafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Statement-in-support-of-Omar-Radi-July-2021.pdf

At Bertha Foundation the year 2020 will always be remembered for two events: the outbreak of Covid and its devastating impact on the most vulnerable people across the world and the year that Omar Radi, Moroccan investigative journalist and Bertha Challenge Fellow, was subjected to lengthy and relentless state sponsored harassment, which ultimately led to his imprisonment in July 2020. Almost a year to the day, on 19 July 2021, he was sentenced to six years in prison on spurious charges of rape and espionage.

Bertha Foundation, after more than a decade fighting for a more just world, knows that the world is becoming increasingly repressive and dangerous for journalists. The Bertha Challenge fellowship has supported some of the bravest and most talented journalists and activists working across 26 different countries. Omar, together with the 2020 cohort, investigated how the relationship between property, profit and politics contributes to land and housing injustice. His work focussed on how the Moroccan state is using expropriation of tribal lands for its own enrichment.

Omar is a kind and loyal colleague with a deep love for justice and truth and for marginalised and landless people of his country, Morocco. At Bertha we are proud to be associated with him and we are deeply concerned that the Moroccan government did not allow for a fair trial as evidenced by an independent report from the Clooney Foundation.

Morocco Condemns Amnesty International's ‘Political Interference’

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/03/348032/morocco-condemns-amnesty-international-s-political-interference

Amnesty International has been claiming that Morocco used spyware against activists and journalists, including Moroccan journalist Omar Radi.

A Moroccan court sentenced Radi to six years in prison in July 2021. Casablanca’s Court of Appeal upheld the sentence against Radi, confirming the charges he had been arrested for – including “rape” and “receiving funds from a foreign agent” to “undermine Morocco’s security.”

Prior to and after his trial, Amnesty International continued to release reports and statements, accusing Morocco of using spyware against the journalist.

In response, the Moroccan government has been asking the NGO to provide evidence for its claims, which Amnesty International has failed to answer.

Morocco renewed its request demanding evidence from Amnesty International on February 28 of this year. Moroccan authorities emphasized on March 19 that the NGO did not send any evidence to back its claims.

>>16298907

>As it turned out, it housed in its offices far more power than most government buildings. Indeed, Oppenheimer even had a private treaty with the Soviet Union, although the terms have never been publicly revealed.

“Moscow-Pretoria expose widens” – Dated February 7, 1984 – Part 1

https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1984/eirv11n05-19840207/eirv11n05-19840207_013-gold.pdf

Last week on this page I reviewed the evidence of Soviet-South African collaboration in the gold market; in parallel, the West German weekly Der Spiegel, something of an equivalent to Newsweek, published a similar story which I had the opportunity to review after filing. Whether Der Spiegel's sources are better than mine, I cannot tell; in any event, many believe that the Hamburg journal has intimate ties to Soviet intelligence, among other services. Its publisher, Rudolf Augstein, is in any event a leading advocate of German "neutrality" and reunification.

What Der Spiegel reports is well known to informed financial circles in Western Europe, if not to American newspaper readers, and certainly not to gold investors, many of whom appear to view South Africa as some sort of bastion of virtue. In truth, apart from the repugnance of Pretoria's racial policies, its strategic ties to the Russians should be a matter of concern for the West at large. It is striking, the extent to which these ties are coming to the surface.

I translate from the Spiegel report, which appeared in the Jan. 23 issue:

"In November of last year, the apartheid state had its first official exchange of diplomaric notes with the Soviet Union since the break of relations 27 years ago. And since then, all movements from the 'land of atheistic enslavement,' as Premier Pieter Willem Botha calls it, are painfully recorded.

"Foreign Minister Roelof Botha openly admitted the exchange of notes with Moscow-at the height of the latest South African invasion of Angola last week, while Pretoria's soldiers were involved in heavy fighting with Cuban-supported and Soviet-armed Angolan troops.

"In any event Moscow's note to Pretoria did not strike one as friendly; Soviet diplomats in the United States, according to Botha, had given over a document which emphatically cited Moscow's 1976 friendship treaty with Angola ….

"But despite the noisy reaction of the premier and some army officers to the note, the foreign ministry in Pretoria last week was not excluding 'some possibilities for rapprochement for Southern Africa. '. . .

"In fact, the Soviet Union and South Africa are the world's largest producers of gold, chromium, vanadium, manganese, platinum, and diamonds.

"That is good for profits, beyond political emnity,. Thus the Soviets and South Africans meet regularly in the official Wozchod-Handelsbank in Zurich, to consult over the erratic movements of the gold market; the two countries control more than 80 percent of world sales.

"In the case of the precious metal platinum, the political arch-enemies cover 94 percent of world supply …. 'It can't be proven that there is price-fixing, ' wrote the I nternational Herald Tribune. 'but contacts contribute to orderly marketing.'

>>16298907

> As it turned out, it housed in its offices far more power than most government buildings. Indeed, Oppenheimer even had a private treaty with the Soviet Union, although the terms have never been publicly revealed.

“Moscow-Pretoria expose widens” – Dated February 7, 1984 – Part 2

https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1984/eirv11n05-19840207/eirv11n05-19840207_013-gold.pdf

"Many threads are spun between South Africa and the Soviet Union in the glass-and-steel world of Johannesburg's high finance. In the west of the city are based the Anglo-American Corporation and its sister firm in the diamond industry, De Beers. Chairman of the board of the worldwide enterprise is Harry Oppenheimer. . . .

"Oppenheimer's intimate and former son-in-law Gordon Waddell was spotted in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, 'just passing through.'"

This refers to the first reports of Soviet -South African gold market discussions, revealed by EIR on July 20, 1980, months before our reports made their way to the London Financial Times.

Otherwise, the article reviews the familiar facts of Soviet diamond marketing through De Beers' sales monopoly, the Central Sales Organization (CSO).

"In the Soviet Union, the secondlargest producer of jewel diamonds in the world, the capitalist management of the CSO is highly prized," reports Spiegel. "When the CSO conducts its sales of 'packets' of diamonds of different size and quality, mixed in are stones of Soviet origin.

"The economic ties of political opponents in southern Africa are entirely paradoxical, as in the case of Angola. The Luanda government is viewed as linked to Moscow, because it accepts help from the Soviets and Cuba in its fight against South Africa and the Unita guerillas. But one of the greatest sources of state revenues (after the American-managed oilfields in the north) depends on the sale of diamonds, through the South African CSO."

We permit readers to draw their own conclusions concerning the implications of such collaboration over the gold price during a period of financial turmoil.

>>16400996

“Silent Weapons for Quite Wars”

It seems to me that the document, “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars”, is playing out in the world.

The world put sanction on South Africa during Apartheid but it would not affect the Oppenheimer family due to their global investments but local businesses suffered.

With the COVID shutdowns, the elites benefited where a few more billionaires were created however millions of small businesses suffered globally.

They create the problem, then provide a solution to the problem they created.

https://archive.org/details/SilentWeaponsForQuietWarsOriginalDocumentCopy/page/n1/mode/2up

https://enchantedlifepath.com/war-on-humanity/silent-weapons-for-quiet-wars/

This publication marks the 25th anniversary of the Third World War, called the 'Quiet War' , being conducted using subjective biological warfare, fought with 'silent weapons'.

This book contains an introductory description of this war, its strategies, and its weaponry.

May 1979

Silent weapon technology has evolved from Operations Research (0.R.) a strategic and tactical methodology developed under the military management In England during World War II.

Immediately, the Rockefeller Foundation got in on the ground floor by making a four year grant to Harvard College.

The quality of education given to the lower class must be of the poorest sort, so that the moat of ignorance isolating the inferior class from the superior class is and remains incomprehensible to the inferior class. With such an initial handicap, even bright lower class individuals have little if any hope of extricating themselves from their assigned lot in life. This form of slavery is essential to maintain some measure of social order, peace, and tranquillity for the ruling upper class.

Therefore, the silent weapon Is a type of biological warfare. It attacks the vitality, options, and nobility of the individuals of a society by knowing, understanding, manipulating, and attacking their sources of natural and social energy, and their physical, mental, and emotional strengths and weaknesses.

Economic engineers achieve the same result in studying the behavior of the economy and the consumer public by carefully selecting a staple commodity such as beef, coffee, gasoline, or sugar, and then causing a sudden change or shock in its price or availability, thus kicking everybody’s budget and buying habits out of shape.

The objective of such studies is to acquire the know-how to set the public economy into a predictable state of motion or change, even a controlled self-destructive state of motion which will convince the public that certain “expert” people should take control of the money system and reestablish security (rather than liberty and justice) for all. When the subject citizens are rendered unable to control their financial affairs, they, of course, become totally enslaved, a source of cheap labor.

Not only the prices of commodities, but also the availability of labor can be used as the means of shock testing. Labor strikes deliver excellent tests shocks to an economy, especially in the critical service areas of trucking (transportation), communication, public utilities (energy, water, garbage collection), etc.

>>16400996

The Oppenheimer family have gone beyond the South African borders

“Jonathan Oppenheimer speaks at the 10th annual Oppenheimer Research Conference”; https://youtu.be/6aLPYuUB7aQ (discussing “climate change”)

https://briefly.co.za/60119-jonathan-oppenheimer-age-children-wife-parents-businesses-net-worth.html

Jonathan was among the decision-makers who delisted De Beers in 2001 and sold the Oppenheimer family shares to AngloAmerican in 2012 for $5.1 billion. At De Beers, he served for many years.

Jonathan co-founded Brenthurst Foundation with his wife. It spearheads the growth of Africa. The Oppenheimer's family and Temasek Holdings came together and established Tana Africa Capital that invests in various business opportunities in Africa. He is also the non-executive director of a chemical company called Umicore.

The Presidential Advisory Committee on the Economy in Malawi, which was established by Brenthurst Foundation, is one of the many boards and advisory panels that he has sat on.

https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/about/story/ - The Brenthurst Foundation states;

Our team engages with experts, policy specialists, and senior government officials in Africa and beyond. Our activities focus on:

Policy advice

We identify and share international best practice with governments, addressing not just what to do but how to do it. Our wide experience across different African countries affords us unique insights.

Thought leadership

Drawing on our global network of analysts we undertake research and develop new thinking to address Africa’s challenges and support economic transformation.

We work at the invitation of African governments.

Born in 2004, the Brenthurst Foundation was established by the Oppenheimer family to build on the work of the Brenthurst Initiative of 2003. This was a programme that instigated debate around policy strategies in South Africa to accelerate economic expansion. The debate continues across the continent, driven by the sharing of ideas, data, and experiences.

The Brenthurst Foundation is part of Oppenheimer Generations, a community consisting of a collection of autonomous but interconnected entities, each playing a critical and unique role to fulfil our long-term commitment of leaving our world better than how we found it.

We bring together policy-makers and policy-shapers.

Since its inception, the Foundation has regularly brought together the world's leading thinkers and practitioners to consider ways to enhance the continent's economic growth and development. We are fortunate to count these key players, from presidents and finance ministers to renowned scholars and UN officials, among our advisors and associates.

>>16386558

> A friend of mine, Lord Stephen Sedley [father was a Jewish immigrant, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sedley] a wonderful judge from the court of appeal in England, retired had agreed. He’d helped with the drafting of the regulations…

“Put everyone on DNA database, says judge” – Stephen Sedley “Former” Communist

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562193/Put-everyone-on-DNA-database-says-judge.html

5 September 2007

Lord Justice Sedley's comments came in a BBC interview, though he has been advocating a national database for several years.

He conceded that such a move would be authoritarian but said the current random additions to the database were unfair and indefensible.

Sir Stephen is ex-member of the Communist Party

Unusually - perhaps uniquely for an Appeal Court judge - Lord Justice Sedley is a former member of the Communist Party.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Stephen Sedley was renowned as a radical lawyer.

Born in 1939, he was called to the bar in 1964 after coming down from Cambridge and became a QC in 1983.

He became a High Court judge 10 years later and joined the Appeal Court in 1999.

The judge was a strong supporter of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law through the Human Rights Act.

He has long had an interest in the retention of DNA.

In 2002, he was among the Appeal Court judges who dismissed a case brought on behalf of a 12-year-old boy whose DNA was kept on the database even though he had been declared innocent of any offence. The court said it did not breach human rights laws.

“Is This The Stupidest Thing The UN Has Ever Done?”- North Korea assumed control as the chair of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/stupidest-thing-un-has-ever-done

Last week, North Korea assumed control as the chair of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, the U.N. forum for negotiating multilateral disarmament efforts across the globe. It’s the latest in a string of questionable moves the U.N. has taken in putting nation officials in contradictory positions.

North Korea officially took over the U.N. disarmament conference on Monday, according to NK News. The U.N. move quickly drew criticism from nongovernmental organizations that noted North Korea’s major nuclear weapons development efforts in recent months.

In March, North Korea conducted its first full intercontinental ballistic missile test in over four years. North Korea also conducted a ballistic missile test just days before President Joe Biden visited neighboring South Korea.

“North Korea has just taken over as chair of the Conference on Disarmament here at the United Nations in Geneva,” tweeted United Nations Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“This is not a joke. When they preside at tomorrow’s meeting, our coalition of 40 UN-accredited NGOs is calling on all democracies to walk out.”

“Having the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un preside over global nuclear weapons disarmament will be like putting a serial rapist in charge of a women’s shelter,” Neuer added.

The U.N. has faced criticism for other controversial picks to lead major initiatives.

In April 2020, the U.N. appointed Jiang Duan, the minister at the Chinese Mission in Geneva, to represent the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Consultative Group. Some groups have criticized the U.N. for giving China expanded powers on human rights panels despite carrying out human rights abuses against their minority Uyghur population.

In May 2020, the U.N. also named Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan as a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador. Peng had been photographed in a Chinese military uniform singing for Chinese troops at Tiananmen Square in 1989 after they violently dispersed protestors in an event known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The U.N. also named Chinese television anchor James Chau as a goodwill ambassador. Neuer noted Chau had broadcasted the Chinese government’s forced confession of captured British national, Peter Humphrey, who was made to confess to stealing the data of Chinese citizens.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has also criticized the U.N. Human Rights Council for including “murderers, dictators and thieves.”

>>16418789

>Last year the head of its food trading business said the worst drought to hit the US since the 1930s would be "good for Glencore" because it would lead to opportunities to exploit soaring prices.

“Glencore, Edelweiss offices raided over probe into pulses price fixing”

https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/glencore-edelweiss-offices-raided-over-probe-into-pulses-price-fixing/1519251/

March 18, 2019

CCI has been investigating allegations that the companies formed a cartel to discuss the pricing of pulses while importing and selling them in the Indian market at higher prices in 2015 and 2016, when India faced an acute shortage, the sources said.

India’s antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) raided units of global commodities trader Glencore and two other firms in Mumbai on Saturday in an inquiry into alleged collusion on the price of pulses, four sources with knowledge of the raids told Reuters.

More than 25 antitrust officials carried out the raids at the offices of local units of Glencore and Africa’s Export Trading Group, and India’s Edelweiss group which previously had a commodities business, two government sources told Reuters.

CCI has been investigating allegations that the companies formed a cartel to discuss the pricing of pulses while importing and selling them in the Indian market at higher prices in 2015 and 2016, when India faced an acute shortage, the sources said.

Two years of drought pushed up prices of pulses such as chickpeas and black grams, which are a staple of Indian cuisine, in 2015 and forced New Delhi to offer duty-free imports, encouraging foreign and Indian traders who imported pulses to sell locally.

“The collusion by these companies led to higher prices of pulses,” one of the government sources said, adding that the CCI’s inquiry started three months ago.

The investigation will also assess whether the companies have continued their alleged collusion even after the prices of pulses stabilised in recent years, the source said.

The raids on five company offices in India’s financial capital began on Friday and were concluded on Saturday.

Antitrust officials collected evidence, including documents and e-mails, and questioned company officials during the raids, a second government source said.

The CCI’s raids on commodities traders mark only its fourth such search operation in its near 10-year history.

>>16326145

>>16326294

>>16326385

“[Gill] Marcus appointment may be Glencore readying SA opportunity”

https://www.miningmx.com/opinion/columnists/31172-gill-marcus-appointment-may-glencore-readying-sa-opportunity/

December 8, 2017

it was Marcus who took the chairwomanship of Western Areas, a Johannesburg-listed gold company from yester-year.

At the time, Western Areas was recovering from all kinds of legacy issues, including no small degree of mischief given its links to the late Brett Kebble. It fell to Marcus – who had little mining experience – to settle the ship and eventually oversee the sale of Western Areas to Gold Fields which sought ownership of the South Deep mine in which Western Areas had a stake.

In any event, the addition of Marcus to the Glencore board is an interesting one. Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, has never been afraid of sovereign risk provided it can be offset by opportunity. Having Marcus on his board at a time when the ANC is seeking to rediscover the morale high-ground of its roots – and weeks before a potentially crucial elective conference may just be happenstance. But it might also make perfect strategic sense. It’s one to watch.

>>16488683

>At the time, Western Areas was recovering from all kinds of legacy issues, including no small degree of mischief given its links to the late Brett Kebble.

“Kebble and Hazel Crane murdered in same area” – Israeli Mafia

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kebble-and-hazel-crane-murdered-in-same-area-254700

September 28, 2005

Three victims, all ambushed in their luxury cars and shot dead in the same upmarket area, all by unknown hitmen. The latest in the series of seemingly well-planned assassinations is controversial mining magnate Brett Kebble.

His murder on Tuesday night follows that of socialite Hazel Crane in 2003 and Israeli businessman David Peri last year.

All three cases bear the hallmarks of professional hits.

Crane, 56, was murdered on Monday, November 10, 2003 when she was ambushed outside her home in Athol Oaklands, barely 200m from where Kebble was murdered.

The estranged wife of murdered diamond dealer Shai Avissar, Crane was to have been a key witness in an Israeli Mafia trial.

She had been planning to attend a court hearing when she left her luxury home in Abbotsford just after 9am, driving her white Mercedes-Benz E-class and accompanied by a friend.

A white man believed to have been hiding behind a concrete dustbin, jumped out and fired five or six shots at Crane and her companion, whose identity is being protected by the police.

Her car lurched across Athol Oaklands Avenue and came to a stop perched on a grass verge. She had been shot in the head, chest, arm and leg and died in hospital within four hours. Her friend was hit in the hand.

About 6.45pm on Monday, May 3, 2004, Johannesburg businessman David Peri, 45, was shot dead at the intersection of Melville and Third Streets in Hyde Park.

Peri had been driving his top-of-the range Mercedes-Benz at the time.

Peri, director and sole owner of Southmead Trading in Sandton, had stopped at the intersection of Melville and Third Streets in Hyde Park, a short distance from his home in First Street, when he was ambushed.

Police said four men in a green Nissan Sentra had drawn up, opened fire and fled immediately. Peri was left to die behind the wheel.

Johannesburg police Superintendent Chris Wilken confirmed on Wednesday that no arrests had been made in either Crane's or Peri's case.

>>16488692

“Kebble trial: Victim tells how he was shot” – Brett Kebble, Stephen Mildenhall

https://mg.co.za/article/2010-07-28-kebble-trial-victim-tells-how-he-was-shot/

28 July 2010

All three men involved in the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble have now testified, and have admitted that drug dealer Glenn Agliotti was not directly responsible for the killing.

Faizel “Kappie” Smith, boxer Mikey Schultz and former bouncer Nigel McGurk all testified that they had planned and carried out the shooting of Allan Gray’s former chief investment officer Stephen Mildenhall in Cape Town in August 2005, and the “assisted-suicide” of Kebble a month later in Melrose, Johannesburg.

[A few years prior, the media reported;]

“Kebble conspiracies grow apace”

https://www.news24.com/News24/Kebble-conspiracies-grow-apace-20050929

29 September 2005

Although police and people close to the Kebble family regarded this as mere coincidence, it was also being speculated whether the mining magnate's death might have been linked to an attack on Stephen Mildenhall in Cape Town.

Mildenhall, chief investment official of Allan Gray asset management company, was wounded outside his house in the city three weeks ago in what seemed to have been a foiled hijacking. He survived the shooting.

Allan Gray was a big investor in the Western Areas mining group that used to be controlled by Kebble.

The financial website, www.moneyweb.co.za, reported on Thursday that Allan Gray had announced that the attack on Mildenhall was an "involuntary crime".

>>16488683

>>16488692

>>16488708

“Gill Marcus to Head Western Areas Board”

http://m.futuresmag.com/2005/11/17/gill-marcus-head-western-areas-board

November 17, 2005

CAPE TOWN (Business Day) – Former deputy finance minister and South African Reserve Bank deputy governor Gill Marcus has been appointed executive chairwoman of Western Areas, the company said yesterday.

Western Areas [JSE:WARA] has been dragged into the ambit of the financial chaos engulfing its 39% shareholder, JCI [JSE:JCD] - part of the Kebble family's mining interests.

Her appointment to such a key position will likely raise eyebrows because she has no mining background.

Western Areas has been without a chairman or CEO since late August, when nonexecutive chairman Mafika Mkwanazi and CEO Brett Kebble stepped down from their posts.

Kebble was found murdered in his car in Johannesburg two weeks later.

>>16488683

>>16488740

“WAL's Gill Marcus joins Gold Fields board as nonexec director”

https://www.miningweekly.com/article/wals-gill-marcus-joins-gold-fields-board-as-nonexec-director-2007-02-14

14th February 2007

Western Areas chairperson Gill Marcus had been appointed as a nonexecutive director of Gold Fields with immediate effect, the company said in a note to shareholders on Wednesday.

This follows a successful takeover bid by Gold Fields for the smaller gold-miner, which became a fait accompli in late January, after 94% of Western Areas shareholders tendered their shares into Gold Fields' all share offer of 35 of its own shares for every 100 Western Areas shares.

Gold Fields said on Monday that it had invoked the so-called squeeze-out clause, compulsorily acquiring the remaining shares held by Western Areas minorities.

It also said that it expected to terminate Western Areas' JSE listing on March 30.

Marcus (56) was chairperson of Western Areas Limited from November 17, 2005, to date and chairperson of the executive committee and member of the Placer Dome Western Areas JV board.

She was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1991 to 1999, an MP from 1994 to 1999 and served as Deputy Minister of Finance from 1996 to 1999.

She served as deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2004. She is professor: policy, leadership and gender studies at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, board member of Bidvest Limited and the International Marketing Council, and serves on the advisory board of the Auditor General.

>>16483622

>The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is a public asset management firm wholly-owned by the South African government, with the Minister of Finance as the sole shareholder representative of the government. PIC’s clients are mostly public sector entities including the Government Employees Pension Fund, which contributes 90% of the funds that PIC manages. Other clients include Unemployment Insurance Fund, Associated Institutions Pension Fund, Compensation Commissioner Pension Fund and Compensation Commissioner Fund.

“Exclusive: PIC Commission's Gill Marcus was a Steinhoff ‘beneficiary’”

https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/exclusive-pic-commissions-gill-marcus-was-a-steinhoff-beneficiary-33804554

October 2, 2019

CAPE TOWN – Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Commission of Inquiry assistant commissioner Gill Marcus is the executive director of the Knysna Initiative for Learning and Teaching (Kilt), a non-profit organisation (NGO) that has received donations from the Steinhoff Group.

The collapse of the Steinhoff Group has featured prominently in the commission’s hearings, as the PIC lost billions of rands of state pension fund investments through its shareholding in South Africa’s biggest corporate disaster.

On Tuesday, a businessperson who preferred to remain anonymous but who has been close to the inquiry, questioned why the commission never requested Steinhoff management to testify, while other companies were vigorously questioned for lengthy periods about much smaller investments made by the PIC.

The businessperson suggested that perhaps it was due to Steinhoff’s support of the NGO, because he alleged Marcus had become a “major beneficiary” of the Steinhoff Group.

Gold Fields History – Cecil Rhodes, Gencor, Russia, Anglo American, De Beers, etc.

https://www.company-histories.com/Gold-Fields-Ltd-Company-History.html

Key Dates:

1887: Gold Fields of South Africa is formed by Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd.

1895: George and Leopold Albu create the General Mining and Finance Corp.

1897: The predecessor to Union Corp. is created by Adolf Goertz.

1932: West Witwatersrand Areas Ltd. is formed to work the West Wits Line.

1965: General Mining merges with Federale Mynbou.

1971: West Wits takes over all of Gold Fields of South Africa's assets as well as its name.

1980: Gencor Ltd. is born out of the merger between General Mining and Finance Corporation and Union Corporation.

1998: Gold Fields of South Africa and Gencor merge to form Gold Fields Ltd.

2003: The company enacts its first Black Economic Empowerment transaction to fulfill the new Mining Charter.

Gold Fields acquired several new properties and began to change its management structure and style in the aftermath of the 1895 Jameson Raid, reducing Rhodes' unrestricted personal power. Substantial dividends were declared in 1895 and 1896 on profits derived from dividends paid on the company's holdings in De Beers Consolidated rather than from its own operational profits. Subsequent dividends were low or non-existent. Despite shareholder protests, this situation enabled the company to survive depression and accumulate reserves.

In 1908, using its reserves, Gold Fields began expanding investment outside Rhodesia and South Africa. Gold mines in Ghanathe Gold Coastwere not profitable; Nigeria's Ropp tin mines were. The gold of Siberia's Lena River basin also held considerable promise. When the Russian company operating there sought more advanced U.S. and British technology, Gold Fields became the largest single shareholder in Lena Goldfields Ltd., formed in 1908.

By 1911, Gold Fields had quietly disposed of its Lena share, using the profit on the sale to help replenish the reserves depleted by purchases in the Americas and elsewhere. Encouraged by its consulting engineer, John Hays Hammond, Gold Fields bought shares in U.S. gold and other mines, U.S. power companies, Mexican and Trinidadian oil, and American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), among others. In 1911, a new company, Gold Fields American Development Company (GFADC), was formed to administer holdings in the United States.

In Western Australia, Gold Fields moved from a profitable share in the Wiluna mine in 1926 into the rich Kalgoorlie field and secured a controlling interest in Gold Mines of Australia, formed by the Australian financier W.S. Robinson in 1930.

Gold Fields and Anglo American worked together in other ventures as well, some in South Africa, notably in the Far East Rand, and some in other countries, including the United States.

In 1989, Consolidated Gold Fields was taken over by Hanson PLC after Minorco, an arm of Anglo American, had attempted a strongly opposed takeover bid. Consgold's remaining 38 percent stake in Gold Fields was sold. In August 1989, 30 percent was acquired by Gold Fields of South Africa Holdings, in which the Rembrandt Group [Johan Rupert] held a 40 percent interest, as did Asteroid, a company owned equally by Remgro [Johan Rupert] and Gold Fields, with the insurance company Liberty Life holding the remaining 20 percent. Before the end of the year, Hanson had also disposed of the remaining 8 percent.

>>16488831

>1998: Gold Fields of South Africa and Gencor merge to form Gold Fields Ltd.

>>16298818

>>16321313

History of Gencor – Anglo American, Harry Oppenheimer, Lonrho

https://www.company-histories.com/Gold-Fields-Ltd-Company-History.html

A major change took place during the 1960s when the Afrikaner-dominated mining house Federale Mynbou took control of General Mining. This was effected with the assistance of Anglo American, and its chairman Harry Oppenheimer in particular, who wished to assist the Afrikaans business community in attaining a better foothold in the mining industry. This aim had a political purpose.

The decade since Gencor's formation was a time of upheaval for the group. In the first half of the 1980s there was a lack of direction at Gencor, but this had changed under the leadership of Derek Keys. Keys was succeeded by Brian Gilbertson, who presided over Gencor at a time when politicians viewed the pyramid organization of such conglomerates with suspicion. Unbundling these complicated structures would also tend to increase share prices, which were traditionally undervalued in this system. Subsequently, Gencor divested itself of Engen, Genbel, Malbak, and Sappi.

Gencor bought Billiton International from Royal Dutch Shell in 1994 for £780 million, giving Gencor the opportunity to operate as an aluminum trader as well as producer. However, Billiton was not to remain very long under Gencor's umbrella.

The European Commission scuttled Gencor's plans to merge Implats with Lonrho's platinum interests on anti-competition grounds. The only other competitor in South Africa, the EC reasoned, would have been Amplats (the platinum interests of Anglo American Corp.), and Russia was the only other external supplier. Gencor already owned a 27 percent share in the Lonrho operations Western Platinum and Eastern Platinum.

Gold Fields and Gencor Unite in 1998

By the time Gold Fields and Gencor made the decision to merge in the late 1990s, the South African gold mining industry was faltering. Gold production had fallen due to declining ore grades, higher mining costs, unhappy laborers, and overall industry restructuring. In 1997, gold production bottomed out, reaching its lowest level since 1956. In 1998, the gold assets of both Gencor and Gold Fields were merged, bringing together three of South Africa's most significant mines–Driefontein, Kloof, and Beatrix. The deal created Gold Fields Ltd., the country's second-largest gold concern and one of the largest in the world. At the same time, competitor Anglo American consolidated all of its gold assets into Anglogold, creating the world's largest producer of gold. Both transactions proved that the landscape of South Africa's mining industry was indeed experiencing considerable change.

“Gold Fields, Yamana deal will create No. 4 world mining giant”

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/national-post-latest-edition/20220601/281870122071676

1 June 2022

South Africa-based Gold Fields Ltd. On Tuesday announced a $6.7 billion acquisition of Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc., a combinations that would turn two senior bullion miners into the world’s fourth largest producer.

The proposed all-stock transaction would create a company with headquarters in Johannesburg and 10 precious metal mines, primarily gold, spread across Australia, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Ghana and South Africa.

He [Chris Griffith, chief executive of Gold Fields] that Yamana’s “big project,” known as MARA – a joint venture copper-gold deposit with Newmont and Glencore AG in which Yamana is the majority owner and proposed operator – would benefit under the merger.

>>16529844

>>16527830

> Initially some of the left, some of the Trotsky’s groups, argued that you can only get change in South Africa if you built up an industrial society and then the proletariat, well you know the story. And so they were in favour of investment. It was the only way to bring about change now.

[Provide a solution to the problem they created]

“Business deserves thanks for role in averting SA civil war, say experts ahead of discussion co-hosted by UP” Part 1

https://www.up.ac.za/centre-for-mediation-in-africa/news/post_2957958-expert-opinion-business-deserves-thanks-for-role-in-averting-sa-civil-war-say-experts-ahead-of-discussion-co-hosted-by-up

March 11, 2021

The pressures to end apartheid and build a new political dispensation were multi-levelled, but on one of those levels, business in this country played a significant contributing role. It and the individuals that drove it deserve wider mention.

1972 is probably a good starting point in this story, it was the year the then CEO of Anglo American Corporation, Harry Oppenheimer, invited Alex Boraine, then president of the Methodist Church, to join Anglo. Boraine had publicly criticised the company for its labour relations and challenged Oppenheimer directly with the charge that he “could not believe trade unions were good for whites but not for blacks”. This marked the start of a process of progressively deeper political engagement by the SA business community that led all the way to the Codesa negotiations of the early 1990s.

The rationale for engagement was diverse and far from universal. Business had benefited from operating in a racially structured environment and many of its leaders actively and publicly supported apartheid. However, key influential individuals from the business community throughout the 1970s and 1980s made critical contributions to create the environment for political change to happen.

These contributions were multi-tiered, direct and indirect. In 1976 Oppenheimer and Anton Rupert established a think-tank called The Urban Foundation to advocate reforms to improve the social conditions of black people in urban areas. The NP government viewed the foundation as too critical, and black activists categorised it as moderate and still in support of apartheid. Business also supported initiatives such as the United Democratic Front and the Mass Democratic Movement, funding legal expenses and facilitating and paying the costs of meetings.

The Durban strikes in 1973, where more than 60,000 workers participated in 160-odd strikes that spilt over into other cities and industrial centres, was a turning point and trigger for the Wiehahn Commission, which laid the ground for black trade unions to operate formally.

This was a critical development as it enabled a formal entry point for dialogue between capital and labour. It was in the interactions between employers and unions that followed that business leaders discovered people they “liked” and could reach agreement with. The discussions, negotiations and relationships that were formed in the 1970s provided an absolutely critical basis of good faith that facilitated later upstream political discussions.

“Business deserves thanks for role in averting SA civil war, say experts ahead of discussion co-hosted by UP” Part 2

https://www.up.ac.za/centre-for-mediation-in-africa/news/post_2957958-expert-opinion-business-deserves-thanks-for-role-in-averting-sa-civil-war-say-experts-ahead-of-discussion-co-hosted-by-up

March 11, 2021

By the time international sanctions were imposed in the mid-1980s, business was engaging regularly with the ANC and facilitating high level meetings with the NP government, and even the security and intelligence services. In particular, after PW Botha’s Rubicon speech in 1985, far more from the business side started to get involved, perhaps because they saw the writing was on the wall.

It was in that year that a meeting took place in Lusaka between business leaders led by Anglo CEO Gavin Reilly and senior ANC officials, including Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Chris Hani, Pallo Jordan, James Stuart and Mac Maharaj. Reilly was publicly denounced by Botha for disloyalty.

By this stage these meetings involved scenario planning exercises developed by Anglo, which proved to have considerable influence on later decision-making. These trips to Lusaka became so frequent by a diverse range of people from business, civil society, academic and religious institutions that they euphemistically became known as the Lusaka “trek”.

An important consideration in this process was the homogeneous nature of SA business. In the 1970s and 1980s the major national companies were Anglo (the Oppenheimers); Rembrandt (the Ruperts); Liberty (the Gordons); and Anglovaal (the Menells and Hersovs). The top six companies owned over 80% of the economy in 1985. This economic clout provided considerable leverage.

In addition, key tools business brought progressively to the wider transition process were the principles of dialogue and negotiation. Later, at key points in the transition story this proved critical.

According to the chief negotiator for the National Party, Roelf Meyer, business was the critical factor in laying the foundations in 1990/1991 for the peace accord, without which — in his view — constitutional negotiations could not have succeeded. “It was under the leadership of business, together with Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu and other individual leaders from civil society that played a formidable role in bringing the power of the peace accord. The peace accord is totally underestimated in its impact on the preparations for the constitutional negotiations.”

The early 1990s saw a new and agreed political dispensation emerge, the “Rainbow Nation”. Disappointment would follow, for sure, but the much-feared civil war that many, perhaps most, predicted was averted. For that, business in this country played a not insignificant role.

Dr Cori Wielenga is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, and acting director at the Centre for Mediation in Africa. Gary Rynhart is senior employers’ specialist at the International Labour Organization. The two organisations are hosting a live discussion on March 16 that can be attended virtually on https://youtu.be/J-cMamMGUpA

This article first appeared in Business Day on 1 March 2021. https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2021-03-01-business-deserves-thanks-for-role-in-averting-sa-civil-war/

>>16538743

>This marked the start of a process of progressively deeper political engagement by the SA business community that led all the way to the Codesa negotiations of the early 1990s.

… And beyond

“Michael Spicer (OJ Thomson 1970) Obituary” – Anglo American, Codesa, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), South African Institute of International Affairs

https://www.stjohnscollege.co.za/news/2022/michael-spicer-oj-thomson-1970

10 March 2022

The flag flies at half-mast from the Bell Tower today as we learn of the passing of Old Johannian Michael Spicer (Thomson 1969, Sixth Form 1970).

Michael epitomised the values and ethos of a true Johannian in his life of service to others, with his contributions evident through his many initiatives and solid leadership throughout his life. He devoted himself to promoting responsible business leadership and championing ethical business practices to facilitate a fairer society in South Africa. His legacy will remain a shining example to all Johannians, present and future.

He joined St John’s College in 1966 and matriculated in 1969, before completing a post-matric in Sixth Form in 1970 where he was Head of Thomson. He attended Rhodes University and read a BA in English and History, followed by a BA Honours in History. He returned to St John’s College in 1975 where he taught English and French until the end of 1976.

In 1977, he married his wife Ireen in The Memorial Chapel, before returning to Rhodes on an Ernest Oppenheimer Scholarship to read his Masters in History, which he received with distinction.

Michael and Ireen travelled Europe and the USA before he joined the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, where he was a researcher focused on western economic relations with South Africa. He returned to South Africa in 1981, taking up the Deputy Directorship of the South African Institute of International Affairs.

He joined Anglo American in 1985 and, through his position as Deputy Chairman of the Consultative Business Movement (CBM), was intimately involved in South Africa’s transition to democracy. The CBM was appointed as the secretariat of CODESA, the forum set up to negotiate the new constitution for South Africa. Michael also facilitated the last-minute agreement by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to participate in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994.

After 1994, Michael continued to play a significant role in business in South Africa, rising to the position of Executive Director of Anglo American in 1998 and then Executive Vice President in 1999 when the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

After retiring from Anglo in 2005, he became the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), an influential association of the CEOs of South Africa’s top 100 companies. In 2011 he retired from BLSA and held several non-executive directorships, including Chairman of Anglo American South Africa. He worked with the Brenthurst Foundation and was Chairman of the Rhodes University Board of Governors.

Michael joined the Council of St John’s College in 1999 and was elected Chairman in 2001, a position he held until the end of 2007. He was also a former trustee of the St John’s Foundation and the recipient of the Golden Eagle Award in 2013.

His two sons, Nicholas and Simon, matriculated from St John’s with seven distinctions each.

Michael’s life demonstrated and encapsulated the College motto of Lux Vita Caritas in everything he did. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ireen, Nicholas and Simon at this time of profound loss.

>>16538859

>>16538769

>It was in that year that a meeting took place in Lusaka between business leaders led by Anglo CEO Gavin Reilly and senior ANC officials, including Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Chris Hani, Pallo Jordan, James Stuart and Mac Maharaj. Reilly was publicly denounced by Botha for disloyalty.

“Renowned business leader Michael Spicer, who played an instrumental role in SA transition to democracy, dies”

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-03-11-renowned-business-leader-michael-spicer-who-played-an-instrumental-role-in-sa-transition-to-democracy-dies/

11 March 2022

Respected business leader and public intellectual Michael Spicer died suddenly on Wednesday after a minor operation led to fatal complications.

Spicer had just joined Anglo as a special assistant in public affairs to the then chairman Gavin Relly. There is no doubt he was supportive of Relly joining a handful of other business people in one of the first meetings of business leaders with the ANC the following year.

Despite Botha decrying the meeting, it turned out to be pivotal, prising open a narrow avenue of hope that some kind of compromise resolution could be found and was followed by progressively more and larger “treks” to visit the then banned ANC in the following years.

Spicer’s role as a pragmatic, thoughtful, and elegiac representative of progressive business grew during the phase of negotiations to end apartheid, where he was one of a cohort of advisers and commentators from academia and business intensely interested and involved in the process.

At times, his role was simply to represent Anglo, but often it was much more hands-on, particularly in the process of encouraging the reluctant Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi to take part in the election.

From there, Spicer played a similar role, advising and cajoling – often from leadership positions – both business and the ANC. He was, at certain points, the head of Business Leadership SA and the vice-president of Business Unity SA.

Significantly, when Anglo moved its primary listing to London, Spicer did not join that trek, drawn by a strong connection to South Africa and its political and business leaders, and his interest in African economics.

In their tribute to Spicer, Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani and the chair of its SA management board, Nolitha Fakude, said: “Michael belongs to an extraordinary generation of Anglo American leaders who played an instrumental role during SA’s transition to democracy during the late 1980s and early 1990s.”

They said he saw “business’s role in society far beyond the traditional and committed his career at Anglo American – spanning more than two decades – to working on a full span of social, economic, and political issues”.

Spicer worked closely with Bobby Godsell, who was head of industrial relations at Anglo and later became CEO of AngloGold. Godsell told Business Day that Spicer was a “resonant and reasoned voice of the hopes and aspirations for a new SA”.

A former head of Goldman Sachs, Colin Coleman, who worked with Spicer as part of the Consultative Business Movement (CBM), said Spicer was active in economic policy and negotiations, tough-minded, a centrist politically but unrelentingly constructive. Typically, Spicer’s involvement in the CBM with like-minded people led to the CBM establishing the National Economic Forum (NEF) which later transformed into Nedlac.

Ann Bernstein, the executive director at the Centre for Development and Enterprise, said: “Mike Spicer was a special South Africa, very deeply committed to this country and its future as an inclusive, prosperous and successful democracy.

“During his tenure as CEO of Business Leadership SA we worked closely together on a wide range of issues, including faster and more labour-intensive growth, tackling youth unemployment and most importantly on land reform. He will be deeply missed as a friend and a wise counsellor.”

In recent years, Spicer was a member of the board of Wesgro, a tourism and investment agency charged with developing the Western Cape economy.

Spicer was the lead independent director of human resources company Adcorp, which in a statement on Wednesday said that he “leaves behind him a proud legacy of principled and measured leadership. Mike will be sorely missed by his fellow directors, Adcorp management and all who knew him.”

Spicer’s last job at Anglo was to look after Anglo’s wine farm Vergelegen, which remains owned by the group today. He was once asked if Anglo would ever sell the historic farm. “Not over my dead body,” he said. “It’s the company’s most liquid asset”.

James Rothschild – Investments; Rusal, Glencore, Ukraine, etc.

https://www.thewealthrecord.com/celebs-bio-wiki-salary-earnings-2019-2020-2021-2022-2023-2024-2025/businessperson/james-rothschild-net-worth/

January 3, 2022

James Rothschild comes from the famous Rothschild family. He is a British banker and is known as the heir of his family’s fortune. His family has been involved in a number of businesses for over three centuries. He comes from one of the wealthiest families in the world.

At the beginning of his career, James Rothschild used to work for his family’s company ‘N.M. Rothschild & Sons’. He then decided to venture into other areas by working in Lazard’s, which is a fund manager. It is now taken over by the firm Natwest. He was named as the alternate director of RIT Capital Partners in 2000. In 2004, he became the company’s non-executive director. He was promoted to several positions in the company but decided to leave the company in 2010.

He was then named as the vice-president of Monument Capital Group. He also serves as a partner in Lepe Partners LLP. He is a member of John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center International Council. James has served as an analyst in Hargreave Hale Limited. In addition to this, James Rothschild has his own line of clothing called “Kookai”. He has previously served as the chairman of “Virat”, which is a European retailer. He also serves as Brookings Institution and Barrick Gold Corporation’s member.

James has made investments in a number of companies. Through NR investments, he has invested in RUSAL. He also owns the Glencore bonds. He owns shares worth millions of dollars in Volex, which is an electrical cable maker in Manchester. He has invested in many countries like Ukraine, Romania, and Montenegro.

“De Beers Diamond Company & Black Labour (In "Diamond Road" documentary)”

https://youtu.be/XETdnQFT9VM

1:11 – “At the height of its power, De Beers controlled over 90% of the world’s diamonds. It was one of the most successful monopolies in history and was built on the backs of cheap black labour. The De Beers mines made use of the segregated compound system. Miners were virtual prisoners, unable to leave until their contracts were up. They made use of the Pass Laws. Once released from the compounds, miners had no free movement in the country. Their pass was good only for a return trip to their homeland. De Beers shaped many of the systems on which Apartheid was later based. The whole country would become not unlike a De Beers mining camp.”

“Chronology of how the National Party and African National Congress were outsmarted by White Businessmen and Foreign Governments in taking over South Africa in 1989” – Part 1

https://uncensoredopinion.co.za/chronology-national-party-african-national-party-outsmarted-white-businessmen-foreign-governments-taking-south-africa-1989/

• 26 June 1959 Anti-Apartheid Movement is born after Chief Albert Luthuli pleaded with the British to boycott South Africa

• 3 February 1960 British Prime Minister Harold McMillan present his “Wind of change blowing across the continent” at South African Parliament in Cape Town

• 21 March 1960 Demonstration against pass laws in Sharpeville ends with police killing 69 Africans.This was followed by foreign companies pulling out their investments in fear of instability. Oppenheimer owned and controlled Anglo American buys the shares with help from US banks to bailout the Apartheid regime. [De Beers created the pass laws, see video]

• 08 April 1960 African National Congress(ANC) and Pan Africanist Party(PAC) banned by Apartheid regime

• 5 October 1960 A referendum held with majority of Whites voting for South Africa to become an independent republic. Oppenheimer funded United Party and Progressive Party voted against South Africa becoming an independent republic (http://www.property24.com/articles/philanthropy-in-south-africa/20166)

• 15 March 1961 HF Verwoed withdraws South Africa from CommonWealth after African States, India and Canada vehemently opposed the Apartheid system

• 12 June 1964 Political activists sentenced to life imprisonment :Mandela, Sisulu, Kathrada, Mhlaba, Mbeki, Motsoaledi, Goldberg and Mlangeni

• 16 June 1976 Student Uprising against Afrikaans

“Chronology of how the National Party and African National Congress were outsmarted by White Businessmen and Foreign Governments in taking over South Africa in 1989” – Part 2

https://uncensoredopinion.co.za/chronology-national-party-african-national-party-outsmarted-white-businessmen-foreign-governments-taking-south-africa-1989/

• 19 September 1976 Ian Smith of Rhodesia meets with United States’ Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Pretoria to discuss “majority rule” in Rhodesia

• 1977 Urban Foundation “think tank” is founded by Harry Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and Clive Menell.This Foundation introduced neoliberal housing policy for Blacks under the guise of “development”. Cyril Ramaphosa, Nthato Motlana and Phuthuma Ntleko became the leaders of this “development” Foundation

• 4 August 1977 FW De Klerk informs American Embassy in Pretoria that new “reforms” to Apartheid are on the cards. The “reforms” are an Indian and Coloured parliament(Silent coup begins)

• 12 September 1977 Steve Biko assassinated by Apartheid security forces

• April 1978 Azanian Peoples Organisation is launched a movement based on Black Consciousness

• 1979 Sasol 1 , Sasol 2 and Sasol 3 privatised to become Sasol

• 21 December 1979 Lancaster Agreement signed leading to independence of Zimbabwe in 1981

• 1981 Tricameral Parliament established by Prime Minister PW Botha. Tricameral Parliament was the implementation of the policies De Klerk “whispered” to the US Embassy in 1977

• 1982 National Union of Mineworkers is founded with Oppenheimer funded Urban Foundation lawyer, Cyril Ramaphosa becoming its first General Secretary and James Motlatsi as first President

• 1982 Harry Oppenheimer meets Henry Kissinger in South Africa to discuss the “end of Apartheid”

• 1 April 1982 Nelson Mandela and three other ANC leaders moved from Robben Island to Pollsmoor

• 1983 Oppenheimer controlled Chamber of Mines gives bargaining recognition to National Union of Mineworkers with Cyril Ramaphosa leading the mine workers

• 1983 Alan Boesak, Simon Gqubule, Bishop Phillip Russell, John Thone and Charles Villa-Vicencio meet with members of the ANC during a World Council of Churches assembly, in Vancouver, Canada

• 20 August 1983 United Democratic Front is founded in Mitchells Plain. The UDF will later be funded by Harry Oppenheimer with people such as Alan Boesak, Desmond Tutu, Frank Chikane, Terror Lekota, Vally Moosa, Albertina Sisulu, Sheryl Carolus,Trevor Manuel ,Pravin Gordhan and Popo Molefe on the upper echelons of its structures

• August 1984 Hendrik W van der Merwe (Director, Centre for Inter-Group Studies, UCT) begins his mediation between Apartheid regime and ANC by meeting with Alfred Nzo and Thabo Mbeki in Lusaka

• 8 October 1984 Hendrik W van der Merwe (Director, Centre for Inter-Group Studies,UCT) has a meeting with Nelson Mandela at Pollsmoor Prison

• July 1985 Chase Manhattan Bank stops rolling over loans to South African government leading to a financial crisis in South Africa

• 20 July 1985 President PW Botha declares a State of Emergency which gave more power to the police, the military and the president

• 15 August 1985 President PW Botha presents his Rubicon speech announcing some “reforms” with strong emphasis that Apartheid would remain intact

• September 1985 A delegation of White businessmen led by Gavin Relly (Anglo American) and Zach de Beer (Progressive Party funded by Oppenheimer) meets with Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Chris Hani, Mac Maharaj and Pallo Jordan in Zambia

• 30 November 1985 Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) established with Jay Naidoo as first General Secretary and Elijah Barayi as first president

• December 1985 Oliver Tambo meets with Timothy Bevan (Barclays Bank), Evelyn de Rothschild (Rothschild), George Soros and Tony Bloom in London invited by Tony Bloom

• 29 May 1988 Ronald Regan and Mikhail Gorbachev summit which led to Tripartite Accord; a peace treaty between Angola, Cuba and South Africa. Namibia became independent from South Africa on 22 December 1988 as a result of the Tripartite Accord

>>16488831

>>16488858

“Chronology of how the National Party and African National Congress were outsmarted by White Businessmen and Foreign Governments in taking over South Africa in 1989” – Part 3

https://uncensoredopinion.co.za/chronology-national-party-african-national-party-outsmarted-white-businessmen-foreign-governments-taking-south-africa-1989/

• 18 January 1989 PW Botha suffers a stroke then resigns as leader of National Party on 2 February 1989. Botha nominates finance minister Barend du Plessis as his successor as State President but the NP elected FW De Klerk in March 1989 as his successor which prompted Botha not to resign as President

• 14 June 1989 Act No 90 of 1989, South African Reserve Bank Act of 1989 is passed which consolidates laws relating to South African Reserve Bank and the monetary system in South Africa. Preservation of Secrecy was added for the first time since the South African Reserve Bank was established in 1921 (Financial take over begins)

• 14 August 1989 President PW Botha abruptly resigns as State President and FW De Klerk was sworn in as Acting President (Silent coup complete)

• 15 October 1989 Political prisoners Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba, Wilton Mkwayi and Oscar Mpetha are released after spending 26yrs in prison

• 9 November 1989 Fall of Berlin Wall also known as symbol of the end of the Cold War

• 1989 Iscor privatised

• 1990 Independent Development Trust (IDT) is established as a Schedule 2 State Owned Entity largely taking on the “development” programmes of the Urban Foundation “think tank” which was setup in 1977 by Oppenheimer, Rupert and Menell. Chairman of Urban Foundation, Judge Jan Steyn becomes the head of IDT

• 2 February 1990 President FW De Klerk announces release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and South African Communist Party (SACP)

• 1 April 1990 Transnet becomes a Limited Company

• 4 May 1990 Groote Schuur Minute: Negotiations begin and came to a resolution that exiles should be immune from prosecution and more political prisoners should be released

• 6 August 1990 Pretoria Minute: South African government and the African National Congress agree on the suspension of the armed struggle and the end of the state of emergency

• 30 June 1991 Land Act of 1913 is repealed by the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act

• 20 August 1991 United Democratic Front (UDF) disbanded

• 14 September 1991 National Peace Accord signed by 27 political organisations

• 19 September 1991 Gencor Executive Chairman Derek Keys appointed Minister of Trade and Industry. This is the first time since 1948 that the National Party appoints a minister who is not a member of the National Party in a key and strategic position

• 29 September 1991 Value Added Tax was introduced in South Africa at 10%

• 20 December 1991 Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA I) begins

• 13 April 1992 Nelson Mandela announces intention to separate from Winnie Madikizela Mandela and moves in with Menell family .Clive Menell is one of the founders of the Urban Foundation which was established in 1977

• May 1992 Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA II) begins

• 17 June 1992 Boipatong Massacre : 45 residents in the township of Boipatong are attacked and killed at night by by armed men from KwaMadala Hostel

• September 1992 Former Gencor Executive Chairman and Former Minister of Trade and Industry is appointed as Minister of Finance (Financial takeover complete)

• 1992 Leader of South African Communist Party, Joe Slovo, proposes “Sunset Clause” which means a coalition government will be put in place following a democratic election including guarantees and concessions to all parties

• 10 April 1993 Leader of the SACP Chris Hani is assassinated

• 27 October 1993 Transitional Executive Council Act is passed and the Transitional Executive Council takes over the functions of government with Nelson Mandela as President December

• 1993 Transitional Executive Council takes $850m loan from International Monetary Fund with IMF manager Michel Camdessus informing Nelson Mandela that Apartheid era Finance Minister Derek Keys and Reserve Bank Governor Chris Stals must be reappointed after democratic elections as a condition for the loan

• 27 April 1994 First democratic elections in South Africa with a universal franchise (Silent Coup legitimised)