Former Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson is one six adjudicators that are a part of The People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The tribunal aims to connect the dots in the country’s story of state capture and economic crimes committed in the country before and after democracy in 1994.
Importantly, the South African People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime will be the first tribunal of its kind to focus primarily on economic crimes and corruption.
The panel was organized by Open Secrets, Corruption Watch, Right2Know and the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI). The tribunal comprises five days of public hearings into corruption and economic crimes over the past 40 years.
Mrs. Maynard Gibson is joined on the tribunal with several other adjudicators including Retired African Constitutional Court Justice Zak Yacoob, Former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, African Education Activist Dinga Sikwebu, Social Justice Coalition Deputy Secretary Mandisa Dyantyi, and Human Rights Lawyer. Yasmin Sooka
Their findings will be recorded in a final report set to be published on Feb 7th. It will be the basis for the next steps in the struggle for accountability.
The People’s Tribunal will examine the continuities between apartheid era economic crime; the post-apartheid Arms Deal and contemporary state capture. The first hearings will focus on the arms trade over the past 40 years.
People’s Tribunals have been led by citizens and civil society for over four decades to address human rights abuses and war crimes in many contexts, including Palestine and Indonesia.
This intervention comes at a time when there is significant evidence in the public domain related to these crimes.
Yet there has been insufficient action by the state to fully investigate allegations of corruption and state capture, and to hold powerful individuals, international corporations and politicians accountable for their conduct.
