The Guptas must be smiling all the way to their cash vaults. The £100,000 (R1.8m) monthly retainer they paid disgraced public relations firm Bell Pottinger for two years to besmirch SA may well have been the best investment they made – ranking right up there with capturing a head of state. This polarising, evil and racist campaign was a decoy to draw the nation’s attention away from the looting frenzy. It succeeded beyond their wildest imagination.
Bell Pottinger is gone, but its noxious influence will remain for years – worsened by the poverty wrought by the declining economy and the bankruptcy of ideas of those in charge of the government.
The message of this propaganda campaign has outlived the ruinous reign of Gupta ally Jacob Zuma and the foot soldiers of state capture.
It has been lapped up by those walking zombies who once masqueraded as statesmen and defenders of the constitution. And, in turn, their echo chamber of computer and human bots reverberates with shouts of “white monopoly capital” and “Stellenbosch mafia”. The terms “business” and “profit” have been turned into swearwords.
With this, the most progressive and patriotic of our leaders have been reduced to “white monopoly capital” – something supposedly more evil than Satan himself.
These patriotic people are apparently keeping economic opportunities away from the majority – at least that’s what’s being shouted by the ignorant drunks in the tavern that is social media.
Daily, the real patriots and statesmen – who are trying their damnedest to undo the legacy of corruption – are distracted by this vilification. Good businesspeople, whose products and services, revenues and profits, salaries and taxes keep the country ticking over, are being victimised for the good deeds they do.
Many in the law enforcement agencies and prosecution services are kept busy looking over their shoulders.
