UK-based PR association to probe Bell Pottinger

UK-based Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) yesterday confirmed it will be investigating Bell Pottinger for ethically compromising practices.

“We can confirm that we have received a complaint against Bell Pottinger, filed by Democratic Alliance (the South African political party). Bell Pottinger has been notified of this. We will now begin the formal process set out in the PRCA Professional Charter and Code of Conduct to investigate this alleged complaint,” the association’s director-general Francis Ingham said in a terse statement.

At the weekend, the DA’s national spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said the party lodged formal complaints against the PR firm with the PRCA and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) for allegedly formatting racial hatred in South Africa.

Bell Pottinger, which represented the controversial Gupta family accused of state capture allegations, is a member of the PRCA and the CIPR, which both have a clear a code of conduct that PR firms have to adhere to, Van Damme said.

In a leaked Gupta email, Nick Lambert, a senior adviser at Bell Pottinger, identified “key moments” in a speech which was delivered by ANC Youth League leader Collen Maine. These key moments included the quote: “Those who want to disrupt the state of the nation speech must prepare themselves for a civil war.”

“It is disturbing that the incitement of a civil war in South Africa is identified as a ‘key moment’ by a Bell Pottinger adviser,” Van Damme said.

Furthermore, in another email, Bell Pottinger’s financial and corporate partner Victoria Geoghegan met with Duduzane Zuma to strategise a campaign aimed at marketing a “narrative that grabs the attention of the grassroots population who must identify with it, connect with it, and feel united by it”.

“From this correspondence, it seems as though Bell Pottinger was likely requested by Mr Zuma to undermine the ANC’s communication on policies in order to benefit the Gupta family,” Van Damme added.

Earlier this year in April, Bell Pottinger dropped the Gupta family’s main company Oakbay as a client.

– Additional reporting African News Agency (ANA)

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