Rainbow nation South Africa erupts after Indian business family uses British PR firm to attack white monopoly
After turning the country into their fiefdom, the notorious Guptas’ race-baiting attempt to ingratiate themselves with South African blacks and distract them from the family’s corruption scandals, misfires
It meant to hurt and it did.
But lobbing insults about “white monopoly capitalism” has backfired horribly for South Africa’s notorious Gupta family, who are plumbing new depths in countrywide notoriety.
It is hard to believe the family could amass such influence in the relatively short time since brothers Ajay and Atul first arrived, followed later by another brother, Rajesh, to seek business opportunities in Nelson Mandela’s post-Apartheid “rainbow nation”. A close business relationship with Duduzane Zuma, President Zuma’s son; sweetheart business deals involving state entities; an endless stream of politically connected wining and dining at the so-called “Saxonwold shebeen” – the preferred nickname for their Johannesburg residence that had become, according to some senior politicians, the unofficial seat of government.
The immigrants from Saharanpur outside Delhi, long accused of turning President Jacob Zuma’s administration into a private fiefdom, have been caught out again – this time a ploy to denigrate their detractors with racial epithets. They hired British PR firm Bell Pottinger to generate some much-needed positive spin in the wake of ongoing allegations of state capture.
However instead of providing a counter narrative of hope and social activism, the London-based company indulged in “inappropriate and offensive” tactics, leaving the Guptas more exposed than ever before. Last week the firm issued “a full, unequivocal and absolute apology to anyone impacted” by their South African political liaison.
