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Villain? Hero? 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Diamond Magnate Tokyo Sexwale

Villain? Hero? 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Diamond Magnate Tokyo Sexwale

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Tokyo Sexwale’s story needs to be made into a Hollywood movie. He’s a anti-apartheid activist who did time with Nelson Mandela, a billionaire diamond magnate worth $200 million at one point, a TV host, former housing minister, soccer activist and a peacemaker. Now he’s being investigated in the U.S. as one of three South Africans who “enriched themselves” using millions of dollars of U.S. investor funds. Here are 12 things you didn’t know about South African mining magnate Tokyo Sexwale.

Sources: Mail & GuardianThe National, Times LiveFinancial TimesWikipedia

Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: Veli Nhlapo/timeslive.co.za
Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: Veli Nhlapo/timeslive.co.za

He’s in trouble with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission

Sexwale is one of three South African mining moguls named in an international bribery scandal by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for enriching themselves over several years with millions of dollars of U.S. investor funds. An order dated Sept. 29 says Wall Street hedge fund manager, Och-Ziff Capital Management gave cash to
help South African partners pay off politicians in Chad, Niger, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo in exchange for mining rights.

Mail & Guardian

tokyosexwale
Jibril Rajoub, president of Palestinian Football Association; Tokyo Sexwale, chairman of the FIFA Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine; and Ofer Eini, president of Israel’s Football Association, preparing to shake hands, Dec. 16, 2015. Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP

He tried to broker peace through football between Israel and Palestine

Sexwale served as a member of the board of the South Africa 2010 World Cup Organising Committee. Sepp Blatter invited him to serve on various FIFA committees, including working as the chief envoy on the task force attempting to settle footballing issues between Israel and Palestine. He was a candidate for the FIFA presidency in 2016.

Source: The National

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Tokyo Sexwale married his second wife, Judy van Vuuren, after they met on Robben Island. Photo: Sipho Maluka/City Press/Images24.com

How he got his nickname

Mosima Gabriel “Tokyo” Sexwale, 63, was born in Soweto. His father was a clerk at Johannesburg General Hospital and served in World War II, fighting against the Germans. Sexwale got his nickname, “Tokyo,”  from his involvement with karate as a youth. Sexwale has two children with his first wife, and two with his second wife, Judy van Vuuren, a paralegal he met on Robben Island. In 2013 Sexwale and Judy filed for divorce.

Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: ewn.co.za
Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: ewn.co.za

He trained in the Soviet Union military while in exile

Sexwale became a member of the Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement in the late 1960s and became a local leader of the radical South African Students’ Movement. In the early 1970s, he joined the African National Congress’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“spear of the nation”). While in Swaziland, he completed a Certificate in Business Studies at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1975, Sexwale went into exile, undergoing military officers’ training in the Soviet Union, where he specialized in military engineering.

 

Tokyo Sexwale and Jacob Zuma. Photo: myheraldmagazine.com
Tokyo Sexwale and Jacob Zuma. Photo: myheraldmagazine.com

Zuma fired him but there’s no bad blood

After South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, Sexwale became the Premier of Gauteng Province. He served as Minister of Human Settlements from 2009 to 2013 until President Jacob Zuma fired him during a cabinet reshuffle — Zuma’s fourth since taking office in 2009.  “I was fired,”Sexwale said, according to a Sept. 8 report. “They call it ‘reshuffle.’ President calls and says, ‘Chief I think I would like to try somebody else in this,'” Sexwale said. According to Sexwale‚ he was offered a position in the National Assembly as Member of Parliament pending a new position to be announced later. He said that he declined because he did not have time “for this kind of a thing.”

“I said to the president‚ ‘Find another person there. Let me go back to my positions in society. I got a lot to do‚ I can’t be a passenger waiting for this stuff.” There is no bad blood between them, Sexwale said.

Source: Times Live

WorldSoccer.com
WorldSoccer.com

Sexwale isn’t the only South African named by the SEC for bribery

Along with former Cabinet Minister Sexwale, Cape Town multimillionaire Walter Hennig and their business partner, Mark Willcox, are identified in the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission order. Hennig is accused of being a central figure in paying bribes.

Source: Mail & Guardian, Financial Times

Photo: dreamteamfc.com
Photo: dreamteamfc.com

Och-Ziff is one of the world’s largest, most powerful hedge funds

Och-Ziff, the $39 billion, New York-listed hedge fund run by Daniel Och, has set aside $414 million to pay penalties it’s expecting as part of a deal to settle the alleged bribery in Africa. U.S. prosecutors are expected to insist that an Och-Ziff subsidiary — but not the parent company — pleads guilty to violating anti-corruption law. A corporate fine of hundreds of millions of dollars against Och-Ziff may not be enough for the U.S. authorities. They have specifically said they want individuals to held accountable for corporate crime.

Source: Financial Times

Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: dailymail.co.uk
Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: dailymail.co.uk

The DOJ is under pressure to prosecute people, not just corporations, for financial crimes

The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing for individual prosecutions, generating concern among some defense lawyers. Critics of the department say it has a patchy record for bringing people — rather than corporations — to justice. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said “the Department (of Justice) will not release culpable individuals from civil or criminal liability when resolving a matter with a corporation.”

Source: Financial Times

 

Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: James Oatway/timeslive.co.za
Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: James Oatway/timeslive.co.za

Sexwale was on a terror watch list and was denied US entry

In 2002, he was refused a visa to enter the U.S. and couldn’t attend the listing of Gold Fields (he held a 15-percent stake in it) on the New York Stock Exchange. It turns out many prominent South African anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela were still on a list of global terrorists. Sexwale sued the U.S. Department of State. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice intervened on his behalf. They received 10-year waivers from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of Homeland Security. In April 2008 the waiver was lifted and the ANC members along with the ANC were removed from the terrorist list in the U.S. The ANC demanded an apology in 2013 after Sexwale was held at a U.S. airport because he was on a terrorist watch list.

Source: The Sowetan, Wikipedia

Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: nelsonmandela.org
Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: nelsonmandela.org

He was awarded the Legion of Honor

Sexwale has received many awards and honors including France’s Legion of Honor — the highest you can get for military and civil merit, established in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. He got an honorary doctorate in technology from Nottingham Trent University, an honorary doctorate in business administration from De Montfort University, the Order of the Freedom of Havana (Cuba), the Cross of Valour (Ruby Class) from South Africa, and the Reach and Teach Leadership Award from the U.S. He has also been chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology.

Source: Wikipedia