Yesterday I took a break from hearing various sides of the Steinhoff meltdown to make my first visit to the House of Lords. It was to attend Peter Hain’s follow-up to the explosive November 1 Gupta money laundering speech that hit UK front pages. It was time we’ll spent.
The former Labour Party cabinet minister’s sustained digging has uncovered more cockroaches. Yesterday he added the names of Barclays and Santander, to the already fingered HSBC. The pressure is building.
Equally relevant was Lord Hain’s demand that the British government instruct its enforcers to look into every UK bank account operated by any South African state owned enterprise (Eskom, Denel, SAA, etc).
It was good to be on hand to see this fearless activist put South African interests front and centre in this historic chamber. Hopefully his efforts will soon bear concrete fruit.