During the height of state capture, Johann Rupert was cast as the face of “WMC”. Now, he is part of a South African team trying to mend relations with Donald Trump, writes Pieter du Toit.
Johann Rupert’s involvement in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s mission to Washington marks a significant turning point in the Stellenbosch supremo’s return to the government’s inner circle.
During the height of the state capture era, and with London public relations firm Bell Pottinger in the middle of the information wars, Rupert was cast as the face of white monopoly capital. While national discourse was dominated by the Gupta family’s central role in the state-wide corruption network enabled by then-president Jacob Zuma, Rupert was portrayed as the other side of the coin.
‘They’re coming for you’
In November 2016 an ANC contact in the ANC’s national executive committee sent Rupert a text saying “they’re coming for you”. The Zuma grouping was going to build a narrative around the Stellenbosch mafia, accusing them of “funding (Trevor) Manuel and (Maria) Ramos, Pravin (Gordhan) and (Mcebisi) Jonas…”
Bell Pottinger’s Victoria Geoghegan wrote in an email to Duduzane Zuma that “we are in the middle of a civil war, with the Guptas and allies on one side, and Johann Rupert and others on the other side…”
With revelations about the destruction of SARS, the attacks on National Treasury, the reconfiguration of the boards at Eskom, Prasa and Transnet dominating news, factions in the ANC (with Bell Pottinger’s able assistance) told the public that Rupert was leading an Afrikaner cabal from Stellenbosch who sought to deprive black people of opportunity.
Rupert and “WMC” were in fact trying their best to manipulate the government and policy, and their only objective was to extract unearned and undeserved wealth from South Africa.
The argument went further, rejecting any assertion that the Guptas’ involvement with government and state was problematic, and that they in fact were resisting Rupert and his Stellenbosch mafia’s encroachment on the economy and its resources. He became the face of “white monopoly capital” on social media, Remgro (the family company of which he is still chairperson of the board) a target and his role in business undermined.
He was angry at becoming a target for the state capture crooks and made no apology for being supportive of Ramaphosa replacing Zuma, who was toppled in February 2018. But he did harbour some resentment at not getting recognition from the new elite after Zuma’s ouster, and his offers of assistance during the first Trump presidency being rebuffed. He was asked by the Presidency to facilitate contacts with leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which he did, but his connections in Washington (at the US Treasury and the White House) were never used. “I’d like to have contact with Ramaphosa,” he told me in 2019.
But I’m not going to force myself on him.
Now, six years later, Rupert’s intercession gives Ramaphosa a fighting chance when he confronts President Donald Trump later Wednesday. It finally marks the moment where his offer of assistance to Ramaphosa is being taken up, in service of South Africa.
And opposite him will be Elon Musk, another businessman of international repute, and one of the people who have been feeding Trump with ideas about South Africa, its politics and people. Born in Pretoria, Musk retains some of his Highveld accent, and he will most likely be tasked to lay into Ramaphosa and the South African government.
Rupert will have a specific role to play in the meeting, and it is doubtful whether he will allow Musk to run amok with unfounded claims and ill-informed analyses about South African legislation.
It will be a battle royale.
Rupert, the Stellenbosch native, versus Musk, the Pretoria boytjie, in the White House – but on opposite ends of the battlements.
Rupert is anything but an ANC supporter. And he has been loudly critical of the government and its policies. But he has always wanted to act in the best interests of his country. It seems Ramaphosa has now given him his chance.