Apartheid Guns and Money – A tale of profit

by Hennie van Vuuren

The apartheid state was at war. For two decades before 1994, while internal resistance grew, mandatory sanctions prohibited the sale of strategic goods and arms to South Africa. The last white regime was confronted with an existential threat.
A global covert network of nearly 50 countries was constructed to counter sanctions. In complete secrecy, allies in corporations, banks, governments and intelligence agencies helped move cash, illegally supply guns and create the apartheid arms money machine. Whistleblowers were assassinated and ordinary people suffered.
This is an exposé of that machinery created in defence of apartheid and the people who made this heads of state, arms dealers, aristocrats, plutocrats, senators, bankers, spies, journalists and members of secret lobby groups.
They were all complicit in a crime against humanity. Motivated by ideology or kinship most sought to simply profit from the war. Many have until now relied on lingering silence to erase the uncomfortable truth.
This meticulously researched book lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together material collected in over two-dozen archives in eight countries with an insight into tens of thousands of pages of newly declassified documents. Interviews with spies, businessmen, politicians, sanctions busters and freedom fighters provide eyewitness accounts.

Genres: History, South Africa, Nonfiction, Africa, Politics

624 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 8, 2017

Reviews

[Joss Du Trevou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book would have been great if it was about 1,000 pages shorter. I have never battled so much to get through a book and I could not wait for it to end. It went into far far too much detail for my liking. I learnt a lot from the overarching message but boy was it tedious. 😩

[Kojo Baffoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book left me speechless. It puts so much of modern day South Africa and its challenges into context. A must read for every South African but also for anyone who wants an understanding of the world. Everything is not what it seems. It is a long and dense book but, frighteningly, parts read like a spy novel. They say that truth is stranger than fiction. Every chapter of this book could be made into a movie.

[Thabang Mamkeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

IN-DEPTH exposé on clandestine corruption and human injustice however it would have been better to have succinct chapters than a tedious dragging book.

Hopefully this publication ceases history from repeating itself !

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a momentous book and makes for a fascinating read! It gives an in-depth account of sanctions-busting activities during apartheid South Africa. It exposes the worldwide political, economic and intelligence networks that were involved in these activities, thereby exposing the hypocrisy of many states (including Western powers and China) who formally opposed apartheid yet displayed a willingness to cooperate and trade with the apartheid state, driven by a mix of ideological affinity, economic interests and geopolitical competition. The book carries some important messages, namely that sanctions busting is rarely the work of rogue individuals but tends to involve state actors at the highest level and that present-day grand corruption in South Africa is a direct product of apartheid-era corruption practices. This is very much a factual book, rather than a narrative book in the style of Misha Glenny’s 'McMaffia', so as a reader you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of detail and technical information provided. But the depth and rigour of the research that has gone into this book is hugely impressive. Anyone interested in South Africa, state economic crimes or international organised crime is likely to find this a really informative book.

[Vuyani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be eye opening especially for someone like me who never got to experience how it felt to live under an apartheid government, The only government i know is the ANC one and was interested to learn how the National Party government ran South Africa. I think the author did a splendid job in investigating and highlighting some of the dealings of the Apartheid government. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that while there were sanctions and an arms embargo on the country, other country's (i.e. France, USA, UK, Chile, etc.), including renowned Banks and other business were willing to work with the government and provide it with the required services. These institutions were very hypocritical in that they chose to work with the apartheid government behind closed doors and pretend to be disgusted by its policies in public. This book also sheds light into how SAs biggest businesses actively supported the government at the time. Some of these businesses are huge today as a result of their activities during apartheid.

I do appreciate the level of investigation that was done in researching for this book, I however feel that if could have been a little shorter. Secondly, the book is very heavy on facts, but I feel that it could have been great if it was complemented with more insights.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Van Vurren's ability to string together a vast array of details recorded in disparate sources is very impressive. He has the ability to hone into the detail and explore all its avenues and byways. This is effectively augmented by the bird's eye view he presents in virtually every chapter. This book gives its reader a very clear understanding of apartheid South Africa's historical locus. However, the level of detail and the complexity of the tale of sanctions busting can be daunting and at times stifling to a reader who wants to go from this fact and that to resolving all the tensions they impose on the reader. As a catalogue of all the various ways in which apartheid South Africa engaging in economic crimes, this book is an essential historical record, but as a commentary on the global effort to thwart democracy and freedom it lacks a certain elegance and flow.

[Sasha Naryshkine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phew. It is a really tough read and technical at times, but definitely one needs to continue to plow through to understand the way that the apartheid government could continue to hang on to power. Abuse of tax funds and spending one quarter of budget annually on arms to keep the government in power is about as bad as you are going to see anywhere. And the fact that records are gone makes it worse for all of us, the fact that the truth has in some ways gone to the grave also continues to make the history of this country even more gray. Well done to Hennie and his team for trying to uncover the truth, so that it may never happen again. All South Africans who want to understand the present should definitely read this to get an understanding of the past. Well written, brilliantly researched.

[Geoffrey Abrams · Rating 5 out of 5]

What was done in secret could not stay hidden forever. Someone somewhere knows something and wrote about it. As the Author stated that, ‘corruption is not a phenomenon that is the result of a black-led government. White compatriots should be the first to volunteer such admission.’ There is still a lot to be revealed as yet more information lies dormant and sealed in the different Archives in our country.

[شريف لطفي · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding piece of work which must have taken a large team of researchers from different backgrounds very long years and loads of time spent in archives all over the world to check and cross check every piece of information they managed to get.

Truly impressive and a real eye opener on the corrupt world we live in

[Bongani · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is quite long and too detailed for my liking. It was indeed a tedious read.

It basically takes you through how the apartheid government in South Africa managed to continue operating inspite of the sanctions imposed on them. This book is a friendly reminder that corruption has always been there and it's not a new thing as it tends to seem these days.

[Aakifah Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really impressive book. Well researched and extremely enlightening. I loved it!

[Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an intellectual tour de force. The depth of research that has gone into the book is astounding. Definitely well worth a read.

[Christopher-James Neethling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insight into South Africa’s apartheid government. Gives a lot of context to our struggles today. A bit too long though. Struggled to get to the end.

[Johnny Kleovoulou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as insightful as I would of thought. But an interesting read non the less.

[Christelle Faul Marais · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone trying to make sense of South Africa...

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man

[Thulare Bopape]

A really good book detailing the secret dealings by the western nations (Europe and America) with the Apartheid South Africa to literally enable it to prosper. These western nations are the same nations which put sanctions on South Africa yet fuelled its economy while publicly denouncing it.