The SA Reserve Bank is resisting attempts to expose offshore transactions made by alleged sanctions busters who helped prop up the apartheid government in its last days.The Bank’s peculiar reason for its position — it has cited the possibility of financial harm to certain individuals — hasn’t convinced the SA History Archive (Saha). It has approached the courts to force the Bank to release the information.Some of the individuals named have died, and one is serving a lengthy sentence in an Italian prison for mafia-related activities.Saha took to the courts after the Bank denied 15 of its Promotion of Access to Information requests."Saha is arguing that the grounds for denial [under the Promotion of Access to Information Act] that the Reserve Bank is relying on do not apply to the facts of the case. And, even if they did, Saha’s position is that it is in the public interest to have these records released," says Toerien van Wyk, co-ordinator of Saha’s Freedom of Information Programme."...
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