Like most of humanity, I love Saturdays. And was especially looking forward to the coming one, getting ready to join hundreds of other London-based Saffers in our second successive weekend protest. But it is not to be.
The subject of our ire, London PR and communications company Bell Pottinger, has folded like a cheap suit. The dark media artists have been servicing SA’s infamous crony capitalist Gupta brothers on a juicy £100 000 a month retainer. But yesterday they fired the close friends of SA president Jacob Zuma.
Cutting ties removes the motive for our gathering outside Bell Pottinger’s offices at 330 Holborn. Who the family recruits to replace them is anyone’s guess. But given the damage the Saxonwold connection has done to Bell Pottinger’s reputation, it is highly unlikely any reputable UK agency will answer Gupta calls.
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With the benefit of hindsight and a London vantage point, this relationship was always headed for a sticky end. The Bell Pottinger-engineered fake news and paid twitter campaign was based on stirring up imagined racial tension in SA.
Also, by attacking “white monopoly capital” and painting Guptas as the heroes slaying this supposed monster, the agency so angered Richemont and Investec that both terminated long-standing Bell Pottinger relationships – and said so publicly. But despite losing such top line clients Bell Pottinger continued to take the Gupta cash.
Saturday’s proposed march may have been the final blow, but the fatal one came earlier via the leaking of confidential documents outlining the agency’s strategy for the Guptas and high profile members of the extended Zuma family.
In the City of London, the source of this leak is apparently well known.
Despite the positive spin generated at the time, Lord Tim Bell, who co-founded the agency in the mid-1980s, wasn’t happy to leave when he departed in August last year. Insiders say the high-living Bell was actually forced out by CEO James Henderson, a relative newcomer in a business he joined in 2010 when his financial PR firm Pelham was acquired.
Despite growing evidence of the damage caused by the Gupta connection, Henderson’s reluctance to drop the account stemmed from financial commitments he had made to buy out Bell – and his own messy divorce last year. But with the highly confidential strategy report put into the public domain, and the march, Henderson has finally cried enough.
Whether what was once ranked the UK’s largest communications consultancy can survive the blow to its own reputation damage plus the loss of Gupta largesse is an open question. Judging by yesterday’s well-attended march to the Union Buildings, there are many South Africans who are doing their bit to ensure Bell Pottinger is only the first of many Zuptoid dominos to fall.
