UK Peer to Testify at Zondo Commission

Lord Hain will tell the Zondo Commission that UK-based companies, many of whom were implicated in massive state corruption in South Africa during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, are not doing enough to prevent money laundering and other crimes.

Later today the peer will testify in Johannesburg at the inquiry led by South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice Ray Zondo, investigating allegations of corruption during Zuma’s time in office.

He will say UK banks that may have played a role in the scandal are hiding behind client confidentiality rules, and that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office does not get the funding it needs to combat international financial crime.

Some of the UK’s largest corporations, including KPMG, McKinsey and Bain, have been caught up in corruption scandals that have seen state funds syphoned into the bank accounts of politicians and their friends.

Many of the companies have since been forced to lay off local staff and pay massive fines.

Peter Hain, a British peer and member of the Labour Party, was born in South Africa but left as a teenager for the UK.

As a young man he was a prominent figure amongst the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, joining at 17. 

He become chairman of the Stop the Seventies Tour campaign just two years later that sought to disrupt the all-white South African rugby team’s tour of England, and prevent the planned cricket tour the following summer.