Yes, but they are circumvented all the time. Many years ago, I worked for a publicly-held company that sold equipment to the Spanish telephone company. We had to pay 12% “commission” to certain offficials on every shipment. Any sales to Iran required a 15% payment to the Shah of Iran. Some countries were as low as 10%. This is common in almost every country in the world. The problem with shipping stuff to Africa is that there are many levels of payoffs needed.
I understand but this seems different. Paying money to the SA Amb to the US for 20 years. I wonder if this is coming out now because relations with SA have become so bad? Probably a lot of intriguing details we will never hear about.
Take a look at the timeline.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6182137.stm
Looks like the investigation was started and then stopped before it was finally opened again.