Transitional Justice and Economic Crimes: Innovative Approaches from South Africa

It is urgent to consider how the tools of transitional justice can tackle economic crimes and hold corporations accountable for their complicity in the crimes, economic and otherwise, of autocratic regimes. This chapter explores three innovative ways in which civil society in South Africa has shone a light on apartheid economic crimes, providing renewed opportunities for accountability and truth-telling about corporate accomplices. The first is the People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime, a unique initiative led by a civil society coalition that uses public quasi-judicial hearings to gather evidence of economic crimes in South Africa and advocate for accountability. The second is a complaint lodged by two civil society organisations, Open Secrets and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, with the OECD in terms of that organisation’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Finally, the chapter considers a detailed memorandum submitted by Open Secrets to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority in 2020, that provides a basis for the criminal prosecution of banks that aided and abetted the crime of apartheid. The chapter uses the Archimedes’ Lever model to explore the role of mobilisation, innovators, veto power and context in the South African experience with innovative paths to accountability.