8chan/8kun QResearch SOUTH AFRICA Posts (4)
#16425988 at 2022-06-10 17:20:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #7: "TRUTH cannot be hidden forever" Edition
"Glencore is more of a crime syndicate than a business"
https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion/glencore-is-more-of-a-crime-syndicate-than-a-business-b05f6386-4c96-418a-94a6-d1d6bfe5762d
May 31, 2022
Glencore, the largest natural resources company in the world, is more of a crime syndicate than a business.
After becoming a fugitive for 18 years and being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, President Bill Clinton pardoned [Marc Rich]
Today, Marc Rich's successor companies, Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura, control the price of just about every commodity.
They also dominate a considerable share of South African and global natural resources, led by South African billionaire Ivan Glasenberg who worked for Rich in the 1980s.
Another one of Rich's students is Alan Duncan, a British minister between 2010 and 2019. During his employment at Rich's company, Duncan violated sanctions in the 1980s by supplying oil to South Africa. He is alleged to have moved oil from Brunei to Durban and earned about ?100K a year in the process.
John Deuss is another one of Marc Rich's proteges. Deuss, a Dutchman described as "sleazy", supplied 57% of South Africa's oil imports by 1981, and made $500 million.
Deuss used false flags, forged cargo papers and mid-sea cargo transshipments to move oil for the Apartheid regime.
In 1991, he signed a new contract to supply 45 000 barrels per day, an increase of 15 000 from the previous year.
These examples are to demonstrate the calibre of individuals that led Marc Rich + Co./Glencore.
Fast forward to 2021, former Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg refused to appear before the State Capture Commission after he was implicated as being the "mastermind" behind the "collapse" of Eskom, after allegedly bribing the current president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa with a chairmanship at one of his mining companies in 2012.
Glencore and Ramaphosa first did business together in 2005 when Glasenberg picked Ramaphosa's company, Shanduka as its BEE partner on a coal export project before joining forces again in 2012 to supply coal via Glencore subsidiary, Optimum.
The allegations against Glencore were as follows: Cyril Ramaphosa was given a 9.64% stake in Glencore and become Chairman after the company had bought Optimum Coal Holdings (Eskom's coal supplier in 2011).
According to former Eskom GCEO Brian Molefe, Glasenberg and Glencore appointed Ramaphosa to Optimum, to exert "political influence and the extent to which Glencore would be able to exert pressure on Eskom directors and management."
In 2014, Glencore subsidiary Optimum, chaired by Ramaphosa, renegotiated a 40-year coal contract with Eskom, demanding an increase from R150 to R530 a ton and a waiver of the R2 billion penalties accrued from failing to meet the existing supply agreement.
When Eskom tried to enforce the penalties, they were threatened with Ramaphosa's name, according to former Eskom Interim CEO Matshela Koko, while the Glencore subsidiary claimed it only owed R16 million in penalties.
To further show the decades-old culture of skullduggery at Glencore; Clinton Ephron, who was Optimum CEO at the time Ramaphosa was appointed to chair the company's board, went to the State Capture Commission and lied under oath saying Ramaphosa was never the Chairman of Optimum.
In February 2022, Glencore set aside $1.5 billion to be used to pay fines for bribing government officials and market manipulation in Brazil, Britain, the DRC, Nigeria, the US, and Venezuela.
Yet, interestingly, the South African government, under Ramaphosa, has raised no complaints against Glencore.
#16405077 at 2022-06-06 18:15:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #7: "TRUTH cannot be hidden forever" Edition
>>16405067
>Glencore has now admitted, in a letter to Global Witness, that these payments actually went to Gertler from 2013 to 2016.
"Cyril Ramaphosa's history a red flag - expert" - Glencore
https://www.security.co.za/news/47386
3 June 2022
Glencore denied Ramaphosa's direct involvement in its operations
A leading scholar on the workings of multinationals, has poohpoohed as "an evasion of tough questions" a move by mining house Glencore to absolve President Cyril Ramaphosa from day-to-day operational involvement in a major coal mine supplying Eskom.
Ramaphosa was chair and co-owner of the company's subsidiary Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH) prior to being appointed deputy president in 2014.
University of Johannesburg sociology professor Patrick Bond was responding to this week's statement by Glencore, in which it denied Ramaphosa's direct involvement in the company's operations, or in its Eskom-supplying Optimum Coal Mine (OCM).
"Mr Ramaphosa divested his entire interest in OCH on 22 May 2014 - prior to him taking office as deputy president and prior to his involvement with the Eskom war room," the statement read. [They are covering up for him]
Citing Ramaphosa's past involvement as a director of London Stock Exchange-listed Lonmin, Bond said: "We have learnt a lot about what multinational mining houses want from Cyril Ramaphosa - for example his e-mail on 15 August 2012, to political decision-makers.
"What these multinationals need is a licence to do what they want to do in any country, by assimilating a guy who has influence. In the case of Lonmin, it regrettably meant using Ramaphosa to put down a strike," said Bond.
"We saw this in an e-mail he sent to then minerals minister Susan Shabangu, describing the Lonmin strike as a criminal act and not a labour dispute.
"We must remember what followed when the police force went overboard in doing what they thought he wanted [now known as the Marikana Massacre]."
Turning to the Glencore saga in which the company was last week fined more than $1.5 billion (about R23 billion) after pleading guilty in the US to bribery and market manipulation, mainly against Africans, Bond said: "The fine of $1.5 billion they paid is not compared to the revenue they collected over this period, which amounted to $3.2 trillion.
"This is a slap on the wrist. And Washington collects the fine, not victims in Africa.
"They are the single biggest mining and commodities trading house in the world.
"The other question is that when Glencore was fined, its share price went up by six percent on the London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. How does this happen?
"Here we are dealing with a company employing bribery as its main technique - seen in other parts of the world like Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, elsewhere in Africa and Venezuela."
Former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko this week told The Citizen of his intention to submit documents to the US attorney-general about flaws in the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, which he maintained failed to properly investigate Ramaphosa's role in pushing Optimum's agenda.
#13102435 at 2021-03-03 19:02:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #3: State Inquiry Rebake Edition
"Eskom: Optimum received R1,8bn prepayment on coal with Ramaphosa as board chairperson #Zondo" | State Capturedated 9th December 2020 at https://www.biznews.com/energy/2020/12/09/optimum-eskom-prepayment. Below are a few excerpts.
In 2012, Cyril Ramaphosa was appointed chairperson and non-executive director of Optimum coal mine. Ramaphosa was the black economic empowerment partner for Glencore International which owned 67.77% in shares. Optimum is South Africa's sixth-largest coal producer and fourth-largest exporter of the commodity. It owns two operating mines, both located in Mpumalanga. While Ramaphosa disinvested from his business interests in order to avoid conflict of interest, the Zondo Commission has heard how Eskom arranged to pay R1,8bn to Optimum instead of Tegeta Resources. The latter was owned by the Guptas and set to take control of Optimum through a guarantee issued by Eskom. Later, evidence would emerge of how Glencore was strong-armed into selling Optimum to the Guptas - Bernice Maune.
Suzanne Daniels, the former head of legal and compliance at Eskom has told Judge Ray Zondo that Eskom approved a pre-payment of R1,8bn to Optimum coal mine. The payment was reviewed by all board members and signed off by then group CEO Matshela Koko and CFO Anoj Singh, both executives believed to have worked closely with the Guptas.
When questioned by evidence leader Adv Pule Seleke about the payments, Daniels said it was to be a direct payment to Optimum, which was owned by Glencore International. President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chairman of Optimum at the time and a BEE partner to Glencore through his Shanduka Resources company.
"In essence it was to prepay for coal to Optimum and not from Tegeta. This was a request to consider payment of R1,7bn upfront. for up to 1 year of coal supply," said Daniels.
Daniels also testified that:
- There were emails exchanged between Eric Wood, CEO of Regiments Capital (a consulting agency used by the Guptas and Salim Essa to facilitate government business)
- An email address from a portal registered under 'Business Man' was used to communicate with Matshela Koko, Singh and Daniels. This email address would issue instructions, review documents and send changes to agreements.
- The 'Business Man' email address made changes to the agreement for Optimum, instructing Wood
- Daniels denies she made amendments to the Optimum agreement and sent out drafts about this.
Last week, former Eskom group CEO Matshela Koko said he was axed from his position in 2018 because he had chased R1,4bn owed to Eskom by Optimum coal. He testified Ramaphosa had axed him to protect his interests in the mine.
#13080700 at 2021-03-01 20:47:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #3: State Inquiry Rebake Edition
"State Capture Inquiry | Koko grilled about email" - Eskom- https://youtu.be/iizr3MZW8cE
"Eskom has dominated events at the state capture commission on Monday with former head of generation Matshela Koko on the stand. On Sunday the city press newspaper front page story focused on the special investing unit probing R2 billion in potential Eskom fraud that may have happened in the past three years. Mining and Energy Advisor with the Energy Expert Coalition, Ted Blom, discusses this."
Noteworthy statement;
4:25 - "With deepest respect, the false invoicing and the fronting started in 2001. I have evidence, I handed it to Eskom legal team. They conveniently made it disappear. I still have that evidence... As we sit here now, there are billions of rands of irregularities still going on today."