Gordhan calls PR apology an insult and wants full disclosure
FORMER finance minister Pravin Gordhan has rejected the apology by London-based PR firm Bell Pottinger‚ which worked for the controversial Gupta family‚ describing it as a pathetic cover-up and an insult to South Africans.
Gordhan‚ one of several targets of the company’s shamed campaign for the Gupta family‚ has called for Bell Pottinger to make a full disclosure‚ which would include details of what their clients briefed them on.
He also wants the firm to reveal what dismissed partner Victoria Geoghegan did that concerned them‚ and for people in South Africa to start focusing on South Africans who were part of the campaign.
The Sunday Times reported that Bell Pottinger prepared media releases and provided briefing notes for the presidents of the uMkhonto weSizwe military veterans and the ANC Youth League.
Gordhan said Bell Pottinger stood accused of collaborating in a systematic plan to capture the South African state, as shown by both the studies by the academics and stated in the report by the South African Council of Churches.
“They went beyond image management or whatever they thought they were doing,” he said.
Gordhan and his deputy at the national Treasury, Mcebisi Jonas‚ Absa chief executive Maria Ramos and her husband, Trevor Manuel‚ and several companies and banks all found themselves targets of the campaign. He said South Africans should take comfort‚ not in the apology‚ but in the fact that professional bodies in South Africa and the United Kingdom stood up for what was right by insisting that their members operate in terms of the right values.