Bell-Pottinger weaponised mistrust, so Guptas could loot

Disgraced British public relations firm Bell Pottinger may no longer be in the picture, but South Africa could in
the future still be reeling from the impact of the agency’s narrative that has polarised society along racial lines – decades after the fall of apartheid.

Hired by the Guptas – an Indian family who siphoned billions of rands out of SA at the height of state capture during the Jacob Zuma presidency – Bell Pottinger sowed racial divisions in the country by exploiting societal problems and grievances – using phrases like “white monopoly capital” and “radical economic transformation”.

Those who criticised Zuma were branded “reactionaries”,

“racists”, “clever blacks” and “Uncle Toms”. Drawing parallels between the July 2021 riots and the recent burning of parliament, independent analyst Dr Sarah Britten has warned that the networks the agency helped to establish would not disappear overnight.

“The legacy of Bell Pottinger is still very much with us, with social media having lent itself to that kind of taking of sides and anger – where you can express anger without consequence,” said Britten.

“It is easier for people to express anger than responding to it, with Twitter, in particular, lending itself to promoting divisions, anger, outrage and picking sides.”

Bell Pottinger, said Britten, used that unhappiness and crafted it into easy to understand talking points – still used today.

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“I don’t know whether what we see on social media is a real person or not,” Britten added.

“But I would suspect that there is still a lot of actual people who genuinely hold pro-Zuma views – something we saw during the July riots and we saw it again in response to the burning of parliament.

“Although we don’t have sight of what is going on in WhatsApp, we do know that WhatsApp was used to coordinate the riots – when social media was used to coordinate domestic terrorism.

“The anti-vaccination drive is another example of the same networks that might have been pro-Zuma.”

University of Cape Town media studies Prof Musawenkosi Ndlovu said: “This phenomenon is going to linger on for quite some time.

“Bell Pottinger exploited historical grievances that characterised South Africa, which are still there, making the firm’s campaign successful.

“These issues are still there and being felt by different communities in different ways.

“There are other political parties and factions of the governing party that are still going to exploit these issues within the paradigm of understanding them – as created by Bell Pottinger,” Ndlovu said.

“Already, there has been a diversion on how the first Zondo commission report is being treated, with former president Zuma being advised in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal to ignore it, backed by a narrative that it is weak, not that important, lacking factual accuracy and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Prof Janet Cherry of Nelson Mandela University’s development studies department said the “white monopoly capital” narrative was “based on a flawed analysis of the South African economy”.

“It has populist appeal in a society such as ours, which has such profound and persistent inequality,” said Cherry.

“The creation and manipulation of this narrative has exacerbated divisions in society and placed barriers on building social cohesion and finding a way forward.”

Independent political analyst Bronwyn Nortje said: “The most damaging impact of Bell Pottinger’s campaign was that it fuelled distrust in the media.

“This was a calculated effort to discredit reporting on state capture.”

– brians@citizen.co.za