Capitalism and Economic Crime in Africa The Neoliberal Period

Foreword
Yusuf K. Serunkuma

Introduction—Criminogenic capitalism in Africa, 2023: History, reality, and analysis
Jörg Wiegratz

Part A: Fraud in neoliberalised political economies

1. Cartels as ‘fraud’? Insights from collusion in southern and East Africa in the fertiliser and cement industries
Thando Vilakazi and Simon Roberts

2. The rise of microcredit ‘control fraud’ in post-apartheid South Africa: from state-enforced to market-driven exploitation of the black community
Milford Bateman

3. Black economic empowerment policy in Durban, eThekwini, South Africa: economic justice, economic fraud and ‘leaving money on the table’
Sarah Bracking

4. Fake drugs: health, wealth and regulation in Nigeria
Gernot Klantschnig and Chieh Huang

5. The political economy of intellectual property rights: the paradox of Article 27 exemplified in Ghana
Christiaan De Beukelaer and Martin Fredriksson

6. Anti-fraud Measures in Southern Africa
Nataliya Mykhalchenko and Jörg Wiegratz

Part B: Going Into the Archive I – Texts From Roape.net (2015-2023)

7. Financialisation and Illegal Capital Flight
Ben Fine

8. The London Fix: Price-Making in Capitalism
Khadija Sharife

9. Beyond ‘Capture’, the Gupta Coup d’état of the South African State: A historic repeat of state, finance, and global capitalism dynamics?
Elizabeth Cobbett

10. Grand Theft Sandton: Political corruption and corporate crime as South African capitalism
Patrick Bond

11. Reforming Sonangol: Oil, corruption, and the politics of economic reform in Angola
Liliane Mouan

12. Capitalism, war and plunder in the Horn of Africa
Mark Duffield and Nicholas Stockton

13. Exporting corporate crime with impunity
Thomas MacManus

14. Being cheated by your own relatives
Malin Nystrand

15. ‘Stealing back’ - Uganda’s Nasser Road, political posters, forgery and resistance
Kristof Titeca and Yusuf K. Serunkuma

Part C: Going Into the Archive II – Texts from the Print Journal (1986-2022)

16. The primitive accumulation of capital in a neo‐colony: the Nigerian case (published in 1986)
Festus Iyayi

17. Understanding African Politics (1995)
Chris Allen

18. Misunderstanding African Politics: Corruption & the Governance Agenda (1998)
Morris Szeftel

19. Between Governance & Underdevelopment: Accumulation & Africa's 'Catastrophic Corruption’ (2000)
Morris Szeftel

20. A Back Door to Globalisation? Structural Adjustment, Globalisation & Transborder Trade in West Africa (2003)
Kate Meagher

21. Evaluating Privatisation in Zambia: A Tale of Two Processes (2000)
John Craig

22. Conflict in Central Africa: Clandestine Networks & Regional/Global Configurations (2003)
Ian Taylor

23. Beyond minerals: broadening ‘economies of violence’ in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (2013)
Ann Laudati

24. The politics of incontournables: entrenching patronage networks in eastern Congo’s mineral markets (2021)
Christoph Vogel

25. ‘Illegal’ gold mining and the everyday in post-apartheid South Africa (2022)
Tapiwa Madimu

26. Crony capitalist deals and investment in South Africa’s platinum belt: a case study of Anglo American Platinum’s scramble for mining rights, 1995–2019 (2022)
Musa Nxele

27. International crude oil theft: elite predatory tendencies in Nigeria (2015)
Eddy Akpomera

28. Rentierism and security privatisation in the Nigerian petroleum industry: assessment of oil pipeline surveillance and protection contracts (2018)
Raymond Adibe, Ejikeme Nwagwu and Okorie Albert

29. Regulating Illicit Trade in Natural Resources: The Role of Regional Actors in West Africa (2003)
Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

30. ‘The first dragon to slay’: unpacking Kenya’s war on drugs (2016)
Margarita Dimova

31. Beyond forceful measures: Tanzania’s ‘war on poaching’ needs diversified strategies more than militarised tactics (2017)
Mathew Bukhi Mabele

32. Historical roots of militarised conservation: the case of Uganda (2021)
Ivan Ashaba

33. Anti-fraud measures in Western Africa and commentary on research findings across the three regions analysed (2022)
Nataliya Mykhalchenko and Jörg Wiegratz

Comments on Capitalism and Economic Crime in Africa: The Neoliberal Period
Laureen Snider

Biography

Jörg Wiegratz is Lecturer in Political Economy of Global Development at the University of Leeds, School of Politics and International Studies. He is Senior Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, and Research Associate at the Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, United States International University-Africa, Nairobi. He specializes in neoliberalism, fraud and anti-fraud measures, commercialisation and economic pressure and related aspects of moral and political economy, with a focus on Uganda and Kenya. He is member of the editorial working group of Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE). His books include Neoliberal Moral Economy: Capitalism, Socio‑Cultural Change and Fraud in Uganda, Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud (co-edited with David Whyte) and Uganda: The Dynamics of Neoliberal Transformation (co-edited with Giuliano Martiniello and Elisa Greco). Wiegratz is editor of the blog series Economic trickery, fraud and crime in Africa and Capitalism in Africa (roape.net) and co-editor of Pressure in the City (with Catherine Dolan and Mario Schmidt, developingeconomics.org).

“In this critical, conceptually rich, and thought-provoking collection, Jörg Wiegratz has put together a unique and balanced combination of different types of previously published analyses - in combination with a number of new and updated texts - which are seamlessly intertwined. The collection, by focusing on a wide range of manifestations of crime, illegal markets, fraud and corruption, turns the criminological spotlight on an extremely interesting but largely neglected context. Capitalism and Economic Crime in Africa: The Neoliberal Period will most certainly prompt a fruitful debate as it offers a convincing case about how neoliberalism has acted as a major enabler of criminality through deregulation and restructuring programmes that have been introduced by supranational actors. This is a mandatory reading for academics, law enforcement, and policy makers”.

- Professor Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK

 

“Capitalism and Economic Crime in Africa brings a unique perspective to understanding the intricate operation of capitalist forces in Africa. The papers in this collection, written by a combination of senior and younger scholars studying capitalist dynamics in Africa, give readers a rare opportunity to encounter the often-concealed side of African capitalism.  Written through the unfiltered lens of radical political economy, the essays have laid bare the different economic crimes, from the fixing of commodity prices (the famous London Fix), illicit capital flows, fake drugs to the fronting of conservation as an instrument for looting of natural resources and accumulation.  The volume challenges the conventional explanations of the sources and causes of Africa’s economic challenges by exposing and centring economic crime as an integral part of capitalist formation on the continent.  Being the first analysis of a wide range of economic crime, the collection offers an illuminating exposition of the inner mechanisms of Africa’s encounter with capitalism.  This is a timely intervention and valuable contribution to the study of Africa's economic challenges.” 

- Professor Horman Chitonge, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa

 

“Fraud and corruption in the majority world have been central to the predatory project of capitalism and colonialism. Sometimes used as a legitimating narrative for intervention, but often used simply to expropriate and extract value, fraud is a core technique of power over the Global South. Jörg Wiegratz has put together a definitive collection of essays that helps us understand how fraud and corruption sustain economic domination by the richest states and the richest corporations over the people. Nowhere is this technique of colonisation more enduring than it is in Africa. This is why Capitalism and Economic Crime in Africa is a major contribution to our understanding of contemporary capitalism and colonialism.”

- Professor David Whyte, Queen Mary University of London, UK