Scorpions (South Africa)
The Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), commonly known as the Scorpions, was a specialised unit of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa formed by President Thabo Mbeki, tasked with investigating and prosecuting high-level and priority crimes including organised crime and corruption. An independent and multidisciplinary unit with a unique methodology which combined investigation, forensic intelligence, and prosecution, the Scorpions were known as an elite unit, and were involved in several extremely high-profile investigations, especially into the Arms Deal and into high-ranking African National Congress (ANC) politicians including Jackie Selebi, Jacob Zuma, and Tony Yengeni. President Thabo Mbeki announced the establishment of the Scorpions in June 1999, promising "a special and adequately staffed and equipped investigative unit... to deal with all national priority crime, including police corruption." Though formally launched in Gugulethu on 1 September 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hawks (South Africa)
The Hawks are the South African Police Services' Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), which targets organised crime, economic crime, corruption, and other serious crime referred to it by the President or another division of the South African Police Service (SAPS). It was set up as the Scorpions by the Thabo Mbeki administration in 2001 but President Jacob Zuma replaced it with the Hawks as its succession in 2008, with much new associates. Establishment The decision to replace the Scorpions with a new organisation (The Hawks) came from a resolution taken by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress in 2007 in Polokwane, Limpopo. The ANC argued that government oversight was needed in such a body so as to avoid the agency being used as a political tool to investigate politicians. This followed from a power struggle between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma that resulted in an investigation into Zuma's i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Illegal Drug Trade
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's ''Transnational Crime and the Developing World'' report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652billion in 2014 alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally and it remains very difficult for local authorities to thwart its popularity. History The government of the Qing Dynasty issued edicts against opium smoking in 1730, 1796 and 1800. The West prohibited addictive drugs throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning in the 18th century, British merchants from th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher; his sister is Carol Thatcher. His early career in business led to suggestions that he was benefiting from his mother's position, notably in relation to the Al-Yamamah arms deal. He left the UK in 1986, and has since lived in the United States, Switzerland, Monaco, South Africa, Gibraltar, Barbados, Guernsey, and Spain. In 2004 the ''Sunday Times'' estimated his wealth at £60 million, most of which was suggested to be in offshore accounts. In 2005, he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt. He has two children by his first wife, Diane Burgdorf. He married his second wife, Sarah-Jane Russell (''née'' Clemence), in 2008. After his father's death in 2003, he became Sir Mark Thatc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018), also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation". Born to a Xhosa royal family in Bizana, and a qualified social worker, she married anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1958; they remained married for 38 years and had two children together. In 1963, after Mandela was imprisoned following the Rivonia Trial, she became his public face during the 27 years he spent in jail. During that period, she rose t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains. It has a reputation as an academic city and center of research, being home to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council. It also hosts the National Research Foundation (South Africa), National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards. Pretoria was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pretoria is the central part of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities, including Bronkhorstspruit, Centurion, Gaute ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. As of 2017, it is the biggest manufacturer in Britain. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense. Other major markets include Australia, Canada, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden, where Saudi Arabia is regularly among its top three sources of revenue. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase of and merger with Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), by British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer. BAE is the successor to vari ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tripartite Alliance
The Tripartite Alliance is an alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). The ANC holds a majority in the South African parliament, while the SACP and COSATU have not contested any democratic election in South Africa. The Alliance was forged in 1990 after the release of Nelson Mandela. The movements opposed to white minority rule by the apartheid government. The Tripartite Alliance is also known as the Revolutionary Alliance and just the Alliance. Constituent parties The NPF is currently composed of the following political parties: See also * Congress Alliance The Congress Alliance was an anti-apartheid political coalition formed in South Africa in the 1950s. Led by the African National Congress, the CA was multi-racial in makeup and committed to the principle of majority rule. Congress of the People ... References External linksThe ANC now at a fork in the road ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Congress Of South African Trade Unions
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is a trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ... federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union expelled, and seven Unions voluntarily suspended their participation in COSATU History On 30 Nov 1985, 33 unions met at the University of Natal for talks on forming a federation of trade unions. This followed four years of unity talks between competing unions and federations that were opposed to apartheid and were "committed to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa." COSATU was officially established on 1 December 1985. Among the founding unions were the affiliates of the Federation o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mac Maharaj
Sathyandranath Ragunanan "Mac" Maharaj (born 22 April 1936 in Newcastle, Natal) is a retired South African politician affiliated with the African National Congress, academic and businessman of Indian origin. He was the official spokesperson of the former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. Anti-apartheid activism Maharaj was a political activist and member of the then banned South African Communist Party, who worked in a clandestine manner on anti-apartheid activities with Nelson Mandela. In July 1964, Maharaj was arrested in Johannesburg, charged and convicted with four others including Laloo Chiba and Wilton Mkwayi on charges of sabotage in the little Rivonia Trial, and was imprisoned on Robben Island with Mandela. In prison he secretly transcribed parts of Mandela's memoir ''Long Walk to Freedom'' and smuggled it out of the prison in 1976. During his time in prison, Maharaj completed a B.Admin, an MBA and the second year of a B.Sc degree before his release on 8 Decemb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minister Of Transport (South Africa)
The Minister of Transport is a Minister of the Cabinet of South Africa who is responsible for overseeing the Department of Transport. List of Past Ministers Minister of Transport, 1989–2019 References External linksMinistry of Transport Department of Transport South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country ...
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Jacob Zuma Corruption Charges
Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, is currently facing criminal charges relating to alleged corruption in the South African Arms Deal, 1999 Arms Deal. He was first indicted on the charges in June 2005, but attempts to prosecute him have been beset by legal challenges and political controversy. He is currently charged with two counts of corruption, one count each of racketeering and money laundering, and twelve counts of fraud, all arising from his receipt of 783 payments which the state alleges were bribes from businessman Schabir Shaik and French arms company Thales Group, Thales. The Arms Deal, a major defence procurement package, was signed shortly after Zuma was appointed deputy president in 1999, and both Shaik and Thales had financial interests in the underlying contracts. By 2003, Zuma was one of several South African politicians rumoured to have benefited improperly from the deal, and these rumours appeared to receive substantiation during Schabir Shaik tria ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |