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Concerned South Africans fought Bell Pottinger, a UK PR firm that was known for spreading nastiness around the world; driving it to bankruptcy, after it tried
by buyx 8y ago
Concerned South Africans fought Bell Pottinger, a UK PR firm that was known for spreading nastiness around the world; driving it to bankruptcy, after it tried to destabilise the country, as party of a programme of looting being carried out by its clients in South Africa.[1] KPMG has suffered extensive reputational damage for similar reasons, and its international parent had to intervene to contain the contagion.
Malaysia is taking on Goldman Sachs, going where faint-hearted and fearful first-world regulators fear to tread.
Perhaps we'll see more justice coming from unexpected sources.
[1] I don't think Bell Pottinger's erstwhile members have stopped interfering with South Africa but that's a conspiracy theory for another day.
- nroets 8y agoWe (South Africa) are not (yet) bankrupt. Bell Pottinger cannot be blamed for our problems. The problem is pure and simple that the state is spending too much money on civil servants and inefficient state owned companies.
- buyx 8y agoYou're correct, Bell Pottinger is not to blame for the structural problems in the South African economy, and I never said otherwise. However, many of these issues date back decades (apart from a period of economic liberalisation from the late 80s to early 2000s, South African governments have favoured a large degree of state control over the economy). My comment was referring to the bankruptcy of Bell Pottinger, not South Africa. What Bell Pottinger did, is provide cover for a state capture programme, that, over a short period, funneled money from state owned companies and other parts of the state to the Gupta and Zuma families, and in doing so tried to foment a race war.