Mordet på Olof Palme - 28 februari 1986

Anglo American plc is the world’s fourth largest mining company 2 1 . In 2009 its annual profits were $2.4 billion. This was a bad year by the company’s standards. In 2008 its profits were over $5 billion 3 . Its operations, partly through subsidiaries such as Anglo Platinum, extend to over 60 countries throughout the world (...)

When, during the 1980s, many foreign companies disinvested from South Africa by selling their South African subsidiaries, Anglo American bought up many of these. Fearing the threat of nationalisation and the loss of its dominant economic position in South Africa in the likely event that Apartheid would end, it also maintained cordial relations with the ANC.

Nevertheless, worried that its operations might be restricted by the ANC, Anglo American merged with Minorco , moved its headquarters to London and switched its listing to the London Stock Exchange. It further ensured its safety in South Africa by devolving some of its South African holdings to Black investors under the Black Economic Empowerment scheme – a scheme controversially criticised by Moaletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, as the means by which white dominated corporations were able to maintain their economic position under the new ANC elite who grow rich while the condition of ordinary South African citizens continues to deteriorate Evicting and impoverishing rural communities.