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Bell Pottinger cuts ties with Guptas' Oakbay - report
11 minutes ago
Cape Town – United Kingdom public relations agency Bell Pottinger cut ties with Gupta-owned Oakbay last week, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Oakbay “agreed the termination of the contract just over a week ago,” the UK-based business newspaper reported.
Bell Pottinger told FT that it was ending the relationship after becoming “the target of a politically driven smear campaign in South Africa over the last few months, with a number of totally false and damaging accusations levelled at it”.
This follows allegations that the public relations agency over stepped its mark in helping the Guptas change the narrative that they had captured President Jacob Zuma for corrupt purposes.
This followed allegations by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas that the Guptas offered him R600m and R600 000 in cash to accept the position of finance minister ahead of Nhlanhla Nene’s removal.
South Africa’s top five banks blacklisted the Guptas’ bank accounts and the Public Protector fingered them in the report, State of Capture.
Recently, a document that appears to have been compiled with the assistance of former Bell Pottinger employees, alleges that the firm played a major role in portraying the Gupta family as victims of a conspiracy that involves “white monopoly capital”, a report in the Sunday Times revealed in March.
It reveals how the Guptas and President Jacob Zuma called on the UK-based public relations group Bell Pottinger to win back support following the public outcry with the sacking of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.
The Sunday Times said the report showed there had been a “heavy focus upon use of social media”, including fake bloggers, commentators and Twitter users in an attempt to sway public opinion – claims Bell Pottinger categorically denies.
In 2016, Johann Rupert cut ties with Bell Pottinger – who had worked with Richemont for 18 years – because he claimed they began attacking him as part of their strategy to help the Guptas, Huffington Post reported.
“While they were working for us, they started working for the Guptas,” he told shareholders at Remgro’s AGM in 2016. “The very same person ... their total task was to deflect attention [from allegations around state capture and the Guptas' involvement] ... guess who was the target? A client of theirs: me!"
FT said Investec also cut ties with Bell Pottinger last year.
In September 2016, Fin24 reported how a Bell Pottinger employee sent it a confidential cabinet document to publish as a scoop weeks before it was announced by Minerals Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and which sought to start an inquiry into why the banks shut down the Guptas bank accounts.
http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Fina...-cuts-ties-with-guptas-oakbay-report-20170412
11 minutes ago
Cape Town – United Kingdom public relations agency Bell Pottinger cut ties with Gupta-owned Oakbay last week, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Oakbay “agreed the termination of the contract just over a week ago,” the UK-based business newspaper reported.
Bell Pottinger told FT that it was ending the relationship after becoming “the target of a politically driven smear campaign in South Africa over the last few months, with a number of totally false and damaging accusations levelled at it”.
This follows allegations that the public relations agency over stepped its mark in helping the Guptas change the narrative that they had captured President Jacob Zuma for corrupt purposes.
This followed allegations by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas that the Guptas offered him R600m and R600 000 in cash to accept the position of finance minister ahead of Nhlanhla Nene’s removal.
South Africa’s top five banks blacklisted the Guptas’ bank accounts and the Public Protector fingered them in the report, State of Capture.
Recently, a document that appears to have been compiled with the assistance of former Bell Pottinger employees, alleges that the firm played a major role in portraying the Gupta family as victims of a conspiracy that involves “white monopoly capital”, a report in the Sunday Times revealed in March.
It reveals how the Guptas and President Jacob Zuma called on the UK-based public relations group Bell Pottinger to win back support following the public outcry with the sacking of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.
The Sunday Times said the report showed there had been a “heavy focus upon use of social media”, including fake bloggers, commentators and Twitter users in an attempt to sway public opinion – claims Bell Pottinger categorically denies.
In 2016, Johann Rupert cut ties with Bell Pottinger – who had worked with Richemont for 18 years – because he claimed they began attacking him as part of their strategy to help the Guptas, Huffington Post reported.
“While they were working for us, they started working for the Guptas,” he told shareholders at Remgro’s AGM in 2016. “The very same person ... their total task was to deflect attention [from allegations around state capture and the Guptas' involvement] ... guess who was the target? A client of theirs: me!"
FT said Investec also cut ties with Bell Pottinger last year.
In September 2016, Fin24 reported how a Bell Pottinger employee sent it a confidential cabinet document to publish as a scoop weeks before it was announced by Minerals Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and which sought to start an inquiry into why the banks shut down the Guptas bank accounts.
http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Fina...-cuts-ties-with-guptas-oakbay-report-20170412
