A persistent yet inaccurate myth prevails in South Africa that all of the apartheid state’s records were destroyed. This is not the case, in fact a vast collection of apartheid-era material remains locked away in public and private archives. Between 2012 and 2017, Open Secrets engaged in research in archives across the world in search of the lost stories of apartheid era economic crime. During this period, we collected approximately 40,000 documents in 25 public archives, consulting numerous collections in seven countries including South Africa, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. This material provided the backbone of the publication Apartheid Guns & Money: A Tale of Profit, authored by Hennie van Vuuren and published by Jacana in May 2017. The book, informed by the often newly declassified material found in this archive, tells a tale of global complicity with apartheid. It identifies a global covert network of banks, intelligence agencies, arms companies and politicians that supported apartheid through weapons and oil sanctions busting.

The bulk of the findings in the book, and the material now in this archive are from South African public archives. In mid-2013, 48 Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) requests were lodged with state agencies in terms of PAIA. Most of these documents date from the period 1978–94 and included TRC-related investigations (from the late 1990s). Most requests were ignored or refused on flimsy grounds. It was thanks to the persistence of The South African History Archive (SAHA), assisted by lawyers from Lawyers for Human Rights and pro-bono counsel from Geoff Budlender, Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, Nyoko Muvangua, Hermione Cronje, Lebogang Kutumela and Frances Hobden, that some departments finally (though only partly) relented, and provided access to this information. Much of it has been untouched by South African researchers. It’s a rich vein of material that demands our attention as we come to understand our story.

Where at all possible, the archives provided here include some of Open Secrets’ summaries of the documents contained there. All inventories, finding aids, and lists of folders requested are included wherever these are available.