If only SA bodies moved as quickly

LOCAL backlash against British spin doctors Bell Pottinger was all the more remarkable given how swiftly and severely it brought the axe down.

From the resignation of executive Victoria Geoghegan in July, to the departure of chief executive James Henderson, the end – as it came on Monday – was the stiffest censure possible from Britain’s public relations regulator.

Bell Pottinger, guilty of breaching industry ethics by “inflaming racial discord”, was expelled for five years by the Public Relations and Communications Association.

There is nothing stopping the company from operating, but effectively it has been cut off at the knees.

Membership of the association implies integrity.

It marks an ignominious end for the City-based firm which earned notoriety with a client portfolio which included some of history’s most dubious characters.

That said, it also included venerable companies in its stable, among them none other than Richemont, the reputed JSE luxury goods company. It severed its association with Bell Pottinger after 18 years when chairman Johann Rupert found himself the subject of the white monopoly capital campaign cooked up by the very people he was paying to manage Richemont’s public relations.

There is no doubting the damage caused by the vicious rhetoric. It was a useful distraction for President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas, who are still using the same smear tactics as they battle for survival.

The fall of Bell Pottinger will punch a hole in this insidious campaign.

Zuma’s edifice is evidently crumbling, and almost certain to bring about substantial collateral damage.

Cyril Ramaphosa won’t be the final target.

If only our enforcement agencies weren’t so thoroughly compromised.

They have ignored an entire battlefield of smoking guns to avoid investigating and prosecuting the key architects of state capture, the same people who benefited from Bell Pottinger’s toxic narrative.

Given the chance, Britain’s PR trade body was quick to remove the rot.

If only the party that harbours Zuma saw the virtue in the same decisive action.