LISTEN: UK govt distances itself from Bell Pottinger, says reputation has been damaged between SA, UK

The outrage over Bell Pottinger continues to grow with the UK House of Lords distancing itself from the Gupta aligned company.

Lord Peter Hain, a UK politician and activist, who grew up in South Africa and was involved in anti-Apartheid activities asked a spokesperson for the UK Cabinet to clarify if it had ever worked with Bell Pottinger.

In an interview with Radio 702, Lord Hain said he was angry about the campaign bankrolled by the Guptas.

“I found out a lot more about it in this week when I was teaching at the Wits Business School. What Bell Pottinger was doing was poisonous. Fake news has been their speciality. The truth has been turned upside down.  And I am so angry about it, because it has played into the rhetoric surrounding the political debate in South Africa.

“The truth is the owners of Bell Pottinger are examples of white monopoly capital. They are corrupt, croniysm at its heart and that is the cancer  at the heart of South African society.”

Lord Hain added that Bell Pottinger had damaged the UK’s reputation in SA and said the UK government was in no way involved in the campaign or supported it.

Meanwhile the former chairperson of Bell Pottinger, Lord Bell told BBC in a TV interview a few days ago that he was never in support of the Guptas despite flying to SA to meet them.

“I went there to meet with the Guptas to find out if they needed PR or not. The business was interesting but I told them we could not handle it as it was a conflict of interest.

“We were asked to promote economy empowerment, white monopoly capital was mentioned not by us but by other people, let’s be clear on that,” he said.

Listen to the interview below

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