Mozambique wants Credit Suisse to take $2bn graft debt on the chin – FT

EDINBURGH — Africa has been characterised by corruption, but there is an anti-corruption breeze that is slowly gathering strength in southern Africa. This is evident in legal action mounted by Mozambique against a corrupt European banking institution that benefited from structuring dodgy debt deals for the country. Credit Suisse AG and Credit Suisse International are named in court papers. The London case is "hopefully an indication that the Mozambique government will declare the $2bn debt illegal so that the people of the country do not have to pay a debt they had no say over and no benefit from," Tim Jones of the Jubilee Debt Campaign told the Financial Times. Mozambique is also pressing charges against politically connected individuals in the country who enriched themselves through the deals. Meanwhile, in South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has instituted a plan to excise corrupt politicians and their friends and bring them to book after former president Jacob Zuma allowed his friends, the Gupta brothers and others, to call the political shots and extract huge sums from state coffers. – Jackie Cameron

By Thulasizwe Sithole

The Mozambique government appears to have decided to make banks that turned a blind eye to corruption pay up for graft-inspired debts. As the Financial Times reports, the country has launched London court proceedings against Credit Suisse and former employees of the Swiss bank implicated in the southern African nation's $2bn "tuna bond" scandal.

"The case in the Commercial Court names 10 defendants, including Surjan Singh, Andrew Pearse and Detelina Subeva, the former Credit Suisse bankers who were criminally indicted by US prosecutors in January in connection with the bonds.

"The US indictment accused the trio of working with Mozambique's former finance minister to siphon at least $200m in kickbacks from loans that were marketed to international investors in 2013 as backing a state tuna fishery and maritime security projects."

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