Get out of bed with crooks now

The debate will rage long after today about whether accounting and business giant KPMG did the right thing on the Gupta-related scandal – or whether its hand was forced by the prospect of losing business, not only in South Africa, but worldwide.

At first glance, the company appears to have taken serious action, following the resignations of senior personnel.

Not only that, KPMG has pledged to pay the R40 million it earned from work done for Gupta-related companies over to charities.

In addition, it has withdrawn the controversial report on the SA Revenue Service and refunded the R23 million it was paid for that. But, does that go far enough, we wonder?

Companies like KPMG are the enablers for the deep underground network of corruption that is strangling this country. Without them, transnational money-laundering operations would be more difficult.

The Sars report is sinister work, on a par – because of its poisonous political pitch – with the nation-splitting white monopoly capital narrative pushed by Bell Pottinger.

That report was used as a weapon, remember, against Pravin Gordhan. What happened to KPMG should serve as a chilling warning to all those other, apparently blue-chip, firms that are in bed with crooks.