Sabi Strategy Group was deeply involved in the Vote Leave campaign. Sabi Group was the PR firm of the Brenthurst Foundation and its owner was a Brenthurst associate when the Vote Leave contract was signed. Brenthurst Foundation is founded and funded by the billionaire South African Oppenheimer family. Behind a surprising Vote Leave contract In… Continue reading
Open source investigations
The concept of debt-trap diplomacy has been widely used in recent years, including by world leaders. Most of the time, it is associated with the People’s Republic of China, particularly when bilateral agreements which are part of the Belt and Road Initiative are signed between the Chinese and other developing nations. But what exactly does… Continue reading
The main problem with African democracy is that it’s almost non-existent. Out of the 44 Sub-Saharan countries measured by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index in 2019, only one was a full democracy – Mauritius, with a score of 8.22. Another six countries were catalogued as flawed democracies: Botswana (7.81), Cape Verde (7.78), South Africa… Continue reading
Riva Levinson, the consultant who led Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2016 presidential campaign, is frequently hired by dictators, autocrats, guerrilla leaders and corrupt politicians to whitewash their crimes. Levinson did PR for Somali dictator Siad Barre even as he was massacring civilians. She was hired by Jonas Savimbi, leader of Unita, an Angolan separatist group funded by… Continue reading
The Khashoggi fiasco has brought forward something that the Saudi Arabian Kingdom might have wanted to remain hidden from plain sight: the amount of money that they have given to Western PR firms as for them to paint a very different picture regarding the way the Kingdom has conducted business in the on-going Yemen war… Continue reading
Now that the dust has settled over Zimbabwe, after the first real democratic elections in decades, the country and its leadership are looking for ways to open up the nation to the world, breaking away from the former stance of isolation. As is the case in such situations, a lot of businessmen will now approach… Continue reading
We’re all familiar with the constant barrage of leaks that are released on a daily basis and that have so much potential power that they could topple governments, force important people to resign, drive businesses into bankruptcy and so on. Up until recently, most of the reveals were made by highly competent actors –… Continue reading
Once one of the most prosperous countries in the world, South Africa is now struggling to maintain its economic prospects and social stability. The continental leadership provided by the South African government has been increasingly under pressure, seen for example in the fact that Nigeria became Africa’s largest economy in 2014, and the social inequalities… Continue reading
Judicial documents seen by OSI reveal that Belgian investigators asked for assistance from South African authorities in a criminal inquiry against Omega Diamonds and Sylvain Goldberg. In October 2008, during the search and seizure operation at Omega’s offices in Antwerp, Belgian authorities discovered documents related to a South African company. A magistrate in Antwerp submitted… Continue reading
