South Africa is investigating alleged $7B corruption at state-owned companies

abcnews.go.com:

South Africa has active investigations into alleged corruption totaling more than $7 billion at some of its top state-owned companies

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa has active investigations into alleged corruption totaling more than $7 billion at some of its top state-owned companies, according to a report published Tuesday by the national anti-graft unit.

The investigations are not new, and some have been running since 2018, and all of them were cited by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) in a report to a parliamentary committee to give an update on the status of the probes.

Those investigations involve six state-owned businesses: ports and rail company Transnet, arms company Denel, power utility Eskom, the National Lotteries Commission, national airline South African Airways and passenger rail company PRASA. Around 60 suspicious contracts and hundreds of cases of conflict of interest and other alleged corruption worth nearly $4 billion of public money are under investigation at Transnet alone, according to the report.

Also, there are nearly 40 other ongoing investigations into alleged corruption involving different state-run businesses and national and provincial government departments worth billions more dollars. Even more investigations have been finalized by the SIU ahead of being made public.

The SIU's work reveals some of the scale of South Africa's corruption problem over the last 15 years.

There were allegations of widespread corruption over lucrative government contracts during the administration of former President Jacob Zuma, who led Africa's most advanced economy for nine years before stepping down in 2018 because of the allegations.

A judicial inquiry into