All language subtitles for The.Billionnaires.Who.Made.Our World.S01E02.Bill.Gates.1080p.ALL4.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN

APPLAUSE

The Global Fund is one of the best
and kindest things

people have ever done
for one another.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Bill Gates became an icon.

He's a brilliant man.

And when he sees kids
in Third World countries dying,

he's thinking about how he could use
his wealth to solve problems.

Our foundation announced
a ¤500 million grant

to the Global Fund.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's hard not to celebrate him
and say, "This is pretty amazing."

But he's not a warm, cuddly guy.

It's all business.

Bill Gates is a complicated person.

Bill Gates at Microsoft
was this cold-hearted bully.

Whereas Bill Gates at the Gates
Foundation is widely celebrated

because of billions of dollars
he's given away.

But it's not the innocent
humanitarian organisation

that we've been
led to believe it is.

It was really scandalous.

Country after country, absolute
horror scenes of bodies piling up.

Something went seriously wrong
with Covid-vaccine production.

He has more power
than entire countries.

Competitors were afraid of Gates'
endless resources to destroy them.

Speaking out against Bill Gates,
it could have repercussions.

But I just decided it was time to
talk about the person he really is.

Insiders have never been brave
enough to speak publicly...

..until now.

I have a PhD in mathematics,

I am the recipient of
21 honorary doctorates,

and I was chosen by Fortune

to be number 17

on their list of the
50 greatest leaders in the world.

My daughter, she says,
"Mum, you beat Angelina Jolie."

And I said, "But I lost out
to the Dalai Lama!"

My name is Maria Klawe.
I'm a computer scientist,

and I served on the Microsoft board
from 2009 to 2015.

I didn't really know Bill Gates
before I joined the Microsoft board,

and I really thought of him
as...as, yes,

being a champion for helping people
in the world that needed help.

Are we going to ask you
to support another campaign

about empowering women and girls?

Absolutely.

Because if everyone in the world

thought of themselves
as global citizens,

it would help make sure
that women and girls

receive the education, opportunity
and respect they deserve.

Only global citizens
can make global change.

If we can all think of ourselves
as global citizens...

..girls and women will be supported
throughout the world.

INTERVIEWER: What do you make of him
saying that?

He's a jerk.

The work that the Gates Foundation
has done,

it's supporting poor women in Africa

and in many other parts
of the world.

It's obvious to me that
that's not a priority for him.

But he's willing to be videotaped
saying it's a priority for him.

I went up to Bill at a board meeting
and said,

"I'm thinking about diversity
in STEM."

Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics.

And he just said straight out,
"I'm not interested in diversity."

Maria Klawe has never before
spoken out

about Gates' attitudes to diversity.

This is someone who...

..has set out to achieve things

that are clearly at odds
with his personal beliefs.

Bill Gates has spent decades
devoted to philanthropy.

He's pledged over ¤100 billion
of his own money,

made through commercial ventures

and as founder of software giant
Microsoft.

Raised in Seattle,
he was born into privilege.

He lived in
a very nice neighbourhood.

His father,

head of a large legal firm.

They had plenty of wealth.

And Bill learned from
the best schools in the country.

I met Bill Gates in high school.

He was quite nerdy,
quite opinionated.

I don't think he was very popular.
I don't recall him

having a girlfriend in high school,

but I could be wrong.

Being friends with Bill Gates
had a lot to do with computers.

There were ten of us
that were really nerdy.

So there was Bill Gates,
Paul Allen, me...

We were all self-taught.

Gates used his technical gifts
to advance his high school status,

as he playfully acknowledged
as an older man

who'd become the toast of showbiz.

You were so far ahead of people
in your high school class

with knowledge of computers that
the school hired you, didn't they?

That's right.
I did the school scheduling.

It was a very nice position
to be in.

LAUGHTER

And how did you make that
work to your advantage?

Well, we...we had
80% boys and 20% girls.

But in my classes,
there were all girls.

Just because you worked
the schedule into the...

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
There you go.

Gates later dropped out
of Harvard University

to achieve his dream of
building a software company,

along with his school friend,
Paul Allen.

Microsoft grew at
an incredible pace.

Anything that was

an important problem
to be solved using computers,

he wanted to have Microsoft software

available to solve it with,

and not just in the US
but worldwide.

Every article about you always
mentions you drive your car too fast

and you kind of live
a very fast life -

lots of hours, stay up late,

used to stay up all-nighters
and that kind of thing.

It's almost like a high-tech,
like, Fonzie character.

I like coming in and seeing,
you know, I've got a full day

of things to do and I like
taking planes that fly all night

because then I don't
waste a lot of time.

Within just a few years,
Gates and Allen had built Microsoft

into
a billion-dollar-a-year company.

Bill, he was very proud
of his technical ability,

and he could be very intimidating

because he had recall
of a lot of information.

Bill could be frightening
if you let him.

He'd attack you, he'd belittle you,
he'd really go at you.

The phrase later in Microsoft,
he'd always say,

"That's the stupidest thing
I've ever seen."

You'd be working on something
fairly complicated.

Bill would decide it's simple.

Then he'd come at you, you know,
saying, "Why isn't this done?"

You know,
it'd be very much in your face.

Gates' behaviour became public
after a film crew was allowed

into Microsoft for the first time.

That's ridiculous.
I'm not using this thing.

No, no, no, no, no.
Somebody's confused.

Somebody's just not thinking.
I mean, there's no way.

You guys never understood.

You never understood
the first thing about this.

That clip is part of a probably
a typical Bill G review,

cos probably before that

he asked a question
and he didn't like their answer,

and that sets him off.

Gates also developed
a reputation for ruthlessness.

Even Paul Allen, Gates' lifelong
friend and business partner,

wasn't spared.

The fallout between Paul and Bill,
I was right there.

That was right before I left.

Paul was sick at that time.

This revealing news report was able

to capture the emotional fallout
for Paul Allen.

Alan was miserable and felt
he was being marginalised.

And then things got a lot worse.

He got cancer.

One night, he passed by Gates'
office and overheard him talking

with Steve Ballmer, who'd been
hired to help run the company.

What were they saying?

They were basically talking
about how they were planning

to dilute my share
down to almost nothing.

And it was really a shocking
and disheartening moment for me.

And you were sick.

I think I was still probably
in the middle of radiation therapy.

Bill was complaining that
he wasn't making enough effort.

There can be a tendency with Bill,
"What have you done for me lately?"

No matter how much
you've done before,

what only counts
is what you've done for me lately.

He was arrogant and barbaric.

Bill Gates believed in
a world of win or lose.

He believed,
"If I win, you have to lose."

And as a younger man,
he was a killer.

Hello.

I'm Bill Gates,

chairman of Microsoft.

In this video, you're going to

see the future -

Windows.

He was all geek

and the public face of
cheesy Microsoft adverts,

with the help of a catchy tune
and some amateur rap.

# We're introducing something new

# It's essential for all -
the many and the few

# It's in your store, oooh!

# Microsoft, that's who... #

By the early '90s, Bill Gates
had turned Microsoft into a giant.

MUSIC: Would You...?
by Touch And Go

# I've noticed you around

# Um...

# I find you very attractive... #

The man who transformed the software
industry also found love...

# Would you go to bed with me? #

..becoming engaged
to Melinda French,

a computer scientist at Microsoft.

I think Bill and Melinda
ended up together

because they complemented
each other a great deal.

They could talk business.
She is a very smart lady.

The happy couple, seen joyfully
cutting their wedding cake,

would form a powerful partnership.

The pair captured
the public imagination,

leading to fawning
profile pieces like this.

They always looked like

they had a very special thing going,

you know, a level of intimacy

and a level of intellectual
connection that just caused sparks.

39-year-old Bill Gates had settled
into a new life as a married man.

It seemed that Bill Gates
now truly had it all.

Bill Gates was now
the richest man in the world

from selling 100 million copies
of the Windows operating system.

But he saw emerging companies
like Netscape

as a threat to his empire.

The competition was so intense.
All these new upstarts coming in.

It increased the sense of
dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all world.

Bill Gates' reputation certainly
was as a ruthless competitor.

You never wanted to
go against the behemoth

because they would crush you.

Bill Gates was seen by his peers
and in the industry...as...

..an entitled, arrogant geek.

No matter how successful he was,

he could not bear
to see someone else

doing something better than him.

I was tipped off.

I was sent to Las Vegas,
to this big computer conference.

I was interviewing
a senior executive in the industry

who didn't want to be seen
talking to a member of the press.

So he asked me to meet with him
in the parking lot,

off the record.

And said to me, "You should look
into the Federal Trade Commission's

"secret investigation
of Gates and Microsoft

"and all the illegal practices
they're using

"to tie up the entire industry."

The feds were on Gates' tail
for lots of illegal practices

and market manipulation, leveraging
market power and so forth.

And it snowballed
into this enormous story

with lots of people who are
so afraid of saying anything bad

about Gates that they still
won't go on the record about it.

What are people afraid of?

People are afraid of...

..of Gates' power
and endless resources to...

..destroy them.

It turned out that Gates
had been threatening companies

who use Netscape instead of
Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

If you were a computer manufacturer,

you had to take
his operating system,

and it's going to coerce you
to drop the Netscape browser

and take our free browser,
Internet Explorer, instead.

He was out to kill anyone
who didn't cooperate with him.

His critics in the press
were also brought to heel.

He was seen as a draconian leader

and someone who would try

to make sure that
he controlled the media narrative

surrounding his business practices.

I was writing for many newspapers
and magazines.

By the time the book came out,
it got so much attention.

Gates was obsessively
stating my name all over the world

to journalists and editors
who then called me, saying,

"He's obsessed that you
have inside information.

"He's telling everyone,

" 'Never publish a word that
Wendy Goldman Rohm writes.' "

I started feeling,
"Is this worth it?"

Wendy Goldman Rohm claims
she was then targeted

by anonymous supporters of Gates.

I would get threatening phone calls

and a voice on the other lines,
whispering,

"Wendy, we're going to get you,"
and then hanging up.

I remember being very paranoid

everything I was doing
was being watched

and wondering,
was I being followed?

And then someone in
the industry suggested

I have my phone lines
swept for bugs, and I did...

..and they were bugged.

Of course, you can't prove
who did it, right?

I have never been
so stressed in my life.

After eight years investigating

Bill Gates and Microsoft's
monopolistic behaviour,

the US government
finally took action.

The Justice Department has
charged Microsoft with engaging

in anti-competitive and exclusionary
practices designed to maintain

its monopoly in personal
computer operating systems.

INDISTINCT

It wasn't OJ Simpson,
but it was close.

It was astonishing.

It was the most carefully watched
technology trial of the century.

The main attraction
was Gates's evidence,

given in a three-day-long deposition

when questioned by
star prosecutor David Boies.

This is a message from you
and you type in here,

"Importance: High."

No. No?

No, I didn't type that.

Um...

Who typed in "high"?

A computer. A computer.

Bill Gates went into the deposition

incredibly annoyed
with the whole process.

He thought that the government
had no right to go after him.

And then I don't think
he, you know, had much respect

for people within the process.

It's weird that you're repeating
this exhibit

without the disclosures
for the email.

It's very misleading to have
the version of the document...

You had the real exhibit earlier.
Did you lose it?

First... I can explain
what you're confused about.

I'm not confused, Mr Gates.

To see him in this, you know,

really ugly context, behaving
in a really childish-like way

shocked a lot of people.
They were like, "Wow,

"how can you be so smart
and so stupid at the same time?"

The judge took a dim view
of Gates's disastrous deposition,

and, after a bruising trial,
his reputation was in tatters.

I'm pleased to say that the court
unanimously found that Microsoft

engaged in unlawful conduct
to maintain its dominant position

in the computer operating systems.

Bill Gates took it badly, actually,

and very personally

and was not doing well,

felt like he'd been
wrongfully attacked

or, you know...

..that the whole world
was against him.

Just how much Gates had become
an object of public ridicule

was captured by
this shocking news footage.

..meeting with community leaders.

Watch what happens when a team
of hit men meet him first

with a pie in the face.

It's not like
he's a tobacco executive

who has been shown to
be trying to kill people.

No, he's trying to sell
more Windows operating systems.

Gates was in need
of an image change.

He stepped down
as Microsoft CEO in 2000

to start a significant
new chapter as a philanthropist.

I had a chance to help
with the vaccination

of several of the children,
and it was very gratifying to see.

Through the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation,

he spent billions funding vaccines
and fighting everything

from poverty to climate change.

Some said you could say he buys
his way out of the reputation

of this evil genius tech guy.

And thank God he did.

I mean, how many people are alive
because he did?

When you go around and see
people in Africa who are starving

or don't have access to clean water,

and you think about
how to solve that problem,

you become a bigger person.

I don't think it's me
that's humanised him,

but I don't think that you can
be out in the developing world

and not be touched
by what you've seen.

And Bill travels extensively.

We travel together and alone
to the developing world,

and I think you come back
changed and touched by that.

And I think that's part
of what you're seeing.

With ¤65 billion spent
since he launched the foundation,

everyone now wanted
a piece of Bill Gates.

There does seem to be this idea of

Bill Gates at Microsoft
was this cold-hearted, cunning,

calculating, brash bully,

whereas Bill Gates at
the Gates Foundation is generous,

he's kind-hearted, he's
warm-hearted, he's a humanitarian.

But I think it's important to
understand that the Gates Foundation

isn't an innocent
cheque-writing charity.

Bill Gates is a complicated person.

I think with the Gates Foundation,

Bill very deliberately wanted
to fix his terrible reputation.

It was definitely
a very successful move

in terms of changing
how people saw him.

However, I'm absolutely certain
that the person in the '90s...

..is the same person
that Bill Gates is today.

While Gates led the foundation,

he remained at Microsoft
as chairman until 2014.

Maria Klawe is speaking on camera
about his behaviour

for the first time.

I remember walking into
my first board meeting.

There were about ten people
around the table.

There were only two women.

It was a presentation
on the succession

for the people
who might succeed the CEO.

There were 50 people on the list.

They were all male.

When I commented that
there were no women on the list

and there were only two people
of colour in there,

that's when he yelled at me,

"Are you trying to...
fucking destroy this company?"

And I was like, "What?

"Did that really happen?"

What he meant by that was it was
so obvious that there were no women

who might be capable
of doing something like that,

and that anyone who thought that
a woman could play a leadership role

was clearly an idiot.

Why would I even ask the question?

He thought it was
particularly appropriate

to denigrate me
in front of everybody else.

It makes me feel like
my experiences with Bill Gates

as somebody who was
very dismissive towards women,

that that's just simply who he is.

Under Gates's chairmanship,

just 17% of Microsoft's
workforce were women.

There's the person
he projects as the...

..leader he wants to be seen as,

helping make the world
a better place.

And then in
his day-to-day interactions,

he treats women without respect.

He's living a double life.

Gates has been leading
a double life for decades.

The '80s and '90s saw
allegations of womanising,

weekends away with his mistress
and pool parties with strippers.

He had his favourite women
who he sometimes would bring

to meetings with him, especially
when he was travelling abroad.

This goes on in business
all the time

and with the most powerful...

..men, since time immemorial.

It's well documented in the press.

He appreciates
beautiful, young women.

Gates' conflicted attitude
to women came to the fore in 2019

when his relationship to
a notorious paedophile was revealed.

Bill Gates began meeting
with Jeffrey Epstein in 2011,

which was years after

his sex offence conviction.

I think a reasonable person would
see that it would be a liability

for Bill Gates to consort
with somebody like that.

But he chose to do so.

His relationship with Epstein

also led to Melinda Gates
filing for divorce.

She shocked the world
by doing this tell-all interview,

making clear her reasons.

It was many things,

but I did not like that he'd had
meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. No.

I made that clear to him.

I also met Jeffrey Epstein.
Did you? Exactly one time.

Did you? He was abhorrent.

He was evil personified.

I had nightmares
about it afterwards.

I thought it was an incredibly
revealing and surprising interview.

She didn't shy away
from answering questions.

Allegations surfaced
that Gates had had affairs

with employees at Microsoft.

Bill, we have so much to
catch up on. It's good to see you.

Good morning. Good to see you.
Well, I think this is the...

But he glossed over the details
in a soft media interview

designed to promote
his book about Covid.

Were you unfaithful
in your marriage? Yes.

I caused pain.

And I...I feel terrible about that.

I don't think delving into
the particulars at this point

is constructive.

The definition of what they call...

Gates was also given a platform
to be seemingly contrite

about his relationship with Epstein.

I certainly made a huge mistake.

I didn't realise
that meeting with him

almost downplayed
the incredibly awful things he did.

Despite the divorce
and ensuing scandal,

Bill and Melinda Gates continue
to run their foundation together.

What was stunning to me
is that the news media

took such a vigorous look at
the misconduct allegations

and the relationship with Epstein.

But we also needed to get to a place

where journalists scrutinised
the Gates Foundation,

which is not the innocent
humanitarian organisation

that we've been led
to believe it is.

Almost all of the
Gates Foundation's work

is directed at poor
black and brown people.

But most of the money it gives out,
it doesn't go to Africa,

as the marketing message
would suggest.

It's going to organisations
in wealthy nations.

United States, United Kingdom,
Switzerland.

Nearly 90% of Gates's funding
goes to Western institutions

like Oxford and Harvard, who
work on international development,

and to corporations like MasterCard.

The Gates Foundation is giving money
to large pharmaceutical companies

like Pfizer and GSK and Merck.

Any fancy institution
anywhere in the world,

they're probably getting funding
from the Gates Foundation,

and that's part and parcel of
how it builds its network of power,

by creating financial links to
powerful, influential institutions.

I mean, money talks.

He has more power
than entire countries.

But he doesn't have
journalists going after him

because he funds so many of them.

Bill Gates has given
over ¤300 million

to some of the world's
leading newspapers and broadcasters

to cover health
and development issues.

When the Gates Foundation
gives money to a newsroom,

it doesn't simply cut them a cheque.

They're trying to buy influence
over the news reporters.

One area that has, until now,
been underreported

is Gates's financial affairs.

Bill Gates is definitely
giving away money,

but he's not as generous
as people think.

About 50 cents of every dollar
he donates to the foundation

would otherwise go to taxes.

So Bill Gates gets a real public
benefit running this foundation

in terms of billions of dollars
in tax subsidies.

Much of the Gates Foundation's money

is generated through little-known
commercial investments,

seemingly at odds
with its charitable aims.

Bill Gates is the largest private
farmland owner in the United States.

He owned a massive farm
that just produces acres of potatoes

which produce
McDonald's French fries.

The Gates Foundation
has had investments in tobacco,

in arms manufacturers,
in fast food, in private prisons.

It's all a dollar and cents
argument.

It's about making money.

You might say, "Isn't this good,
that he is investing all this money

"and curing disease
all over the world?"

But his...
It's philanthro-capitalism.

That is...

..it's in his own best interest
in maintaining power.

Bill Gates has built one of

the biggest charitable
foundations in the world,

that affects the health care
of billions of people.

At one stage, the Gates Foundation

was the second largest funder
of the World Health Organization,

after the US government.

He who pays the piper
gets to call the tune.

And in this case, was Gates
actually getting to call the tune

at a major United Nations
organisation?

I remember the time Bill Gates
walks to the World Health Assembly,

which is the highest, if you like,

health cabinet of the world.

And I was just stunned
with the reception he got.

These people, they know about
health care in their countries,

and here's Bill Gates
lecturing them.

He's received like, you know,

like what he is now -
the tsar of global health.

People almost bow to him.

Bill Gates is a college dropout.
He has no medical training.

I don't think we could say
that Bill Gates is particularly

well qualified to have such an
influential role over public health.

Bill Gates has seen his personal
wealth increase by ¤41 billion

since becoming a philanthropist.

He built this extremely powerful,
monopolistic company, Microsoft,

and then he became almost
an equally influential person

in this second chapter.

That same Bill Gates from Microsoft
is now at the Gates Foundation.

They aren't two separate men.
They are the same man.

This is the eastern part of Kenya.

It's a semi-arid region.

The bulk of the population
are smallholder farmers.

There's a lot of maize
being planted in the area.

We have the citrus,
we have the beans, passion fruit,

an indigenous type of mangoes.

The Gates Foundation
has spent nearly ¤6 billion

funding agricultural projects
across Africa.

As a Kenyan, I understand
the challenges facing my continent.

Africa has 330 million
smallholder farmers.

Many of them have
not gone to school,

many of them are elderly,

so this creates
a conducive environment

to perpetuate the agenda
of Bill Gates.

Gates has funded a controversial
farming modernisation scheme

that critics say is against
the will of many African farmers.

Known as Agra,

it advocates using fertilisers
and genetically modified seeds

to boost food production
in poor countries.

But it has not even come close
to meeting those goals

and what it has done instead,

it has increased the ability of
foreign agribusiness corporations

to access African markets.

Gates supports the sale
of seeds and chemicals

made by multinational companies,
leading to criticism

that he's prioritising
corporate interests.

They are clearly oppressing
the small-scale farmer

for the benefit
of the big companies.

The small-scale farmer
should be asked for his opinion.

We are talking about power
of food production

in the hands
of multinational corporations,

and to them, the main interest is
to make profit and to make money.

The Bill Gates Foundation,
of course, it's not philanthropy,

it's actually business.

But in this glossy corporate video,

Bill Gates insists that GM seeds
will save Africa,

entertaining the crowd
with his vision.

The corporations owning the seeds

make money
by patenting the technology.

Farmers must buy the GM seeds
every year or the seeds won't work.

The way that the seeds work is
that they become less efficacious

after, like, a growing season.

People have to kind of be locked
into those cycles of buying seeds.

Bill Gates advocates
that impoverished farmers

buy seeds on credit,

despite similar schemes proving
catastrophic in countries like India.

They are given this kind of loan
in the form of inputs and seeds,

and then they have to
repay that loan in cash.

This creates a sense of
desperation among many farmers

who are in this
kind of cyclical process

of trying to maintain their farm.

When you introduce
massive amounts of debt on farmers

that can't be repaid,
it can lead to suicide

and other kinds of social issues
and breakdowns.

Going back to this kind of idea

that the Gates Foundation
is helping solve poverty,

that kind of thing
is how you actually deepen poverty.

The Bill Gates Foundation
is actually making Africans imagine

that they are modernised
but, in reality,

they are moving closer
to the grave.

There are strong parallels
between what the Gates Foundation

is doing now and neocolonialism.

Somehow, a white man
from Seattle, Washington

knows more about African agriculture
than African farmers themselves.

It always amazes me how
arrogant some men can be,

and it's particularly true

for men of wealth.

Bill Gates thinks of himself

as the most intelligent,
talented person in the world.

And he thinks that he can
get up to speed on anything.

The truth of the matter is
there's a lot that he doesn't know.

Controversy has followed
Gates across Africa.

His response to the Covid pandemic
has led to particular criticism

by health insiders.

Bill Gates' heart
is in the right place.

I think he genuinely wants to
solve society's biggest problems.

When the pandemic started,
all hell broke loose.

I knew that if I got Covid,
I'd probably die.

It was terrifying.

The sense of trying to get a vaccine
and not being able to get one...

..I was going crazy.

I'm Catherine Kyobutungi
and I'm the executive director

of the African Population
and Health Research Center,

based in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Gates Foundation
is one of our top ten funders.

They are a critical player
in the region.

Gates was the chief architect of
Covax, a scheme used by 172 countries

with ambitious targets
to source Covid vaccines

for billions of
the poorest people on Earth.

There was one obvious source.

The University of Oxford,

who invented the British vaccine,

initially said they wanted it
to be patent-free.

They believed it should be
a vaccine for anybody in the world

who was able to make it
and able to produce it.

There was then a negotiation

which Bill Gates's Foundation
got involved in

and, when that negotiation
had finished,

it turned out that
the vaccine knowledge

had actually been handed
over to AstraZeneca,

and they were suddenly in charge
of who could buy it,

of who could produce it,
of who ultimately got it.

The Gates Foundation denies
that they forced that decision,

but it's been reported in
much of the press that they did.

Gates supported an exclusive deal
between Covax

and pharmaceutical company
AstraZeneca.

Bill Gates has personal
relationships with the CEOs

of big drug and vaccine companies.

He was just trying to
protect big drug companies.

He does everything to keep
the monopoly on knowledge

and on the product

in the hands of these...
of these companies.

Gates has had major investments
in pharmaceutical companies.

He defends their rights
to Covid vaccines

in confident media appearances
like this.

The thing that's holding things back
in this case

is not intellectual property.

There's not, like,
some idle vaccine factory

with regulatory approval
that makes magically safe vaccines.

You know, you've got to do
the trials on these things.

I do a regular phone call
with the pharmaceutical CEOs

to make sure
that work is going at full speed.

Bill Gates regularly said,
"Look, we have to depend upon

"the big pharmaceutical companies
because they're the only ones

"that could actually manufacture
these vaccines in bulk."

What Bill Gates repeatedly said
isn't true and, unfortunately,

the fact he said it convinced
many people that it was true

because that's an example of the
power and influence that he's got.

It transpired that over
a billion AstraZeneca vaccines

earmarked for Covax were to be made
in just one factory in India.

By what logic would anybody think
that one company would provide

for the whole of Africa, let alone
the rest of developing countries?

Covax was touted
as the - THE - solution.

Not A solution - THE solution.

In 2021, Covax had produced
just a fraction of what was promised

to the poorest countries on Earth.

It was really scandalous.

In country after country
after country,

absolute horror scenes
of bodies piling up.

The loss of life
as a result of the fact

that, while we here in the West were
getting our third and fourth doses,

front-line health workers and the
most vulnerable people in society

in many countries around the world
had not been vaccinated.

They'd had nothing.

While vaccine distribution
later improved,

in 2021, Covax was a failure.

Insiders like Catherine Kyobutungi
are speaking out for the first time,

blaming Bill Gates's refusal
to support vaccine patent waivers.

That was the worst thing
he did in the pandemic.

In spite of all the havoc
that the pandemic wreaked,

people were still intent on
maintaining the status quo

when it came to power because
that is going to restabilise...

..I don't know, maybe
shareholder value or something.

But, yeah, you can have a system
where people think

that maintaining your economic power

is much more important than
the lives of billions of people.

Um...

Yeah, I don't know.

I think for me, it was the worst
thing that he could have done.

Bill Gates was in a position,
more than any other individual

or any other institution
outside of a government,

to have pushed things
in the right direction,

but on the contrary, he pushed
it in exactly the wrong direction.

And so he deserves a lot of blame
cos he had a lot of power.

Who elected Gates
to be the global health tsar?

Who gave him this permission
to effect or at least constrain

the decision-making
of domestic national governments?

No-one gave him that permission.
He took it himself.

He hands himself so much power
and influence over societies

that he doesn't live in,
that he doesn't come from,

that he is, in effect,
having a huge amount of influence

over the way
that those countries develop.

You have this unelected billionaire
in Seattle

with his hands on the levers

for how we feed poor people,
how we grow food,

how they access medicine.

And with Gates spending billions
on health, poverty and agriculture,

there is a culture of silence
across those sectors.

If you irritated or annoyed
the Gates Foundation,

the money might dry up.

Maybe we just need to, in essence,
let him do whatever he wants

and then not risk
currying his displeasure

because what if he tries to
silence you or other people?

I've had people ask me to
wear a mask and a hat to meetings.

I've had people who have said,

"How do you know you
weren't followed?"

It's a strange thing, I think, for
people who see the Gates Foundation

as this great humanitarian
organisation to understand

the culture of fear
that really engulfs the foundation.

The fear was enough to lead people
to be reluctant to speak up,

but we did it, many of us,

with some fear over
our own professional futures.

Catherine Kyobutungi is one of
the only people in the world

who receives Gates's funding who's
willing to criticise him publicly.

Speaking out against the foundation

and maybe speaking out,
being critical of Bill Gates,

of course,
it could have repercussions,

but I honestly feel liberated

and I feel liberated
to speak truth to power,

I feel liberated
to speak for Africans.

I don't set out to speak
about the Gates Foundation

and their role in enhancing
global health inequity,

but I turned 50 this year
and I asked myself,

"If I don't advocate when I'm 50...

"..when will I advocate?
"When I'm 75? When I'm 65?

"If it's not me, then who?"

Many people have something to lose.

I was not afraid of
what would happen if I spoke out.

I just decided it was time
to actually be willing

to talk about the person
he really is.

I'm 71 years old and I'm at
that stage of my career where...

..I'm not afraid at all.

I don't think it's fair to say
that he's a supervillain,

but what's happened is we've
made him into a kind of superhero.

In reality, he is a deeply flawed

and maybe even
a deeply troubled man.

I think it's a mistake to
underestimate what he's capable of.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media