Major economic growth in Africa begs the question of who benefits from the newfound economic interests on this continent. This new scramble for Africa is entrenching the extractive development model from both old and new actors which is not only keeping African countries locked in to producing and exporting raw materials but goes beyond extraction of minerals to include other natural resources (gas, oil, forests, fisheries and land). The investment agreements governments are entering into, whether through bilateral investment treaties or directly with investors, are awarding investors more rights than citizens. Driven by the imperative of maximizing profit, peoples’ rights have been systematically violated, constituting land and water grabs, abusive labour and community relationships and environmental destruction.
To break free from corporate domination and control that permeates all aspects of life, not least economic relations, politics, media, culture, health and even the reproduction of life, means opening the way to alternative policies of equity and justice based on the fulfillment of the human rights of all persons and peoples. It is key to making possible democratic and peaceful coexistence within each of our communities, locally, nationally, and internationally as well as with our common home, the global environment.
AIDC’s work on Transnational Corporations is to ultimately expose and hold these corporations to account for the environmental and human rights violations they inflict on small communities, their illegal financial actions that cause the country and continent to lose billions of dollars each year, and to reveal and break down the structures of impunity created in conjunction with the State.
Our projects are:
- The Southern Africa Campaign to dismantle corporate power, top Impunity and Reclaim Peoples’ Sovereignty
The Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power is the regional leg of a Global Campaign. It aims to bring partner organisations, affected communities and movements together to confront and break down the corporate systems which destroy their livelihoods, homes and health, and violate their basic rights, as well as the State policies which enable this.
- Illicit Capital Outflows: Lonmin
In 2014, AIDC released a publication about platinum company Lonmin’s illicit capital flows and profit shifting, which has been occurring for decades and of which the Marikana massacre of 2012 is a symptom.
- Glencore and Coal in South Africa
AIDC is working on a continuing project on Glencore’s coal-related activities in South Africa, looking both at their illicit financial actions and policies, and the destructive impact of their work on the lives of workers and communities.