Nelson Mandela, South Africa's former president, is to be called to give evidence in a lawsuit alleging that Barclays Bank aided and abetted genocide in the apartheid era.
Lawyers acting for victims of the racist regime are seeking details of an alleged 'deal' in which Mandela's government is said to have agreed to not punish western corporations over their actions in the Seventies and Eighties.

Ed Fagan, the American class-action attorney who is handling the $20 billion (£10.9bn) lawsuit against several European and American companies, has criticised the post-apartheid government for publicly opposing his litigation, and will apply this week to subpoena Mandela. 'He is 87 years old and we need to get his evidence while he is still available to us,' Fagan said yesterday.
Fagan also plans to add Barclays Bank to the list of corporations accused of collaborating with the regime and thereby assisting in genocide. Other firms facing this lawsuit include IBM, Anglo American and UBS. All deny liability.
Barclays, which is already fighting separate claims alleging that it exploited black South African workers, declined to comment on the latest lawsuit. It has previously denied acting improperly during the apartheid era.

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