Solly Moeng: Weaponised PR - Why Tony Leon's Resolve scandal exposes the whole industry

Reputation strategist Solly Moeng doesn't pull punches on the Steenhuisen-Resolve Communications saga. His argument: this isn't DA infighting, it's proof that South Africa's PR industry has become an unaccountable weapon in factional warfare. When a firm chaired by former DA leader Tony Leon allegedly helps drive campaigns against sitting officials, "we're just executing the brief" stops being a defence and becomes complicity. Moeng draws the ANC parallel deliberately - tenderpreneurs and fixers manipulating internal contests is old news; a party built on clean governance doing the same is worse. His challenge to his own industry: pick a side, or be exposed alongside the Madlanga Commission's rogues gallery..By Solly Moeng*.One has to be super naïve to have never suspected that much of our politics is choreographed behind closed doors by people we never voted for. John Steenhuisen’s recent allegations about Tony Leon’s Resolve Communications - that a professional PR outfit helped drive a campaign against him and his chief of staff – don’t just confirm those suspicions. They shine a torch into the long existing crevices of the moral rot at the intersection of politics and the reputation industry.Let’s be blunt: if a communications agency chaired by a former DA leader is embedded in internal DA power plays, shaping who survives and who is taken out, then we are no longer talking about neutral strategy support. We are talking about weaponised PR - paid factional warfare dressed up as “professional advice”.And the usual excuse that “we only execute the client’s brief” won’t wash anymore. Not in a country as fragile as ours. Not when those briefs are about destroying internal opponents, not serving voters. When “strategic communications” is just sanctioned political hit‑workThe core of Steenhuisen’s claim is simple enough: that Resolve Communications, with Leon at the helm, was not merely helping the DA tell its story, but actively aiding a campaign that undermined him inside the party. In other words, a supposedly independent reputation shop was, in practice, part of the factional machinery. That’s not an abstract risk. It has real consequences:It tilts internal contests long before ordinary members or voters know what’s going on.It rewards those who can afford the best narrative assassins, not those who can lead.It ensures that reputations are manufactured in dark corners, then laundered in mainstream media.This is a familiar game in the ANC – where tenderpreneurs, fixers and intelligence operatives have been manipulating internal contests for decades – but it is particularly galling when it appears inside a party that presents itself as the champion of constitutional values and clean governance. You cannot preach rule‑of‑law politics while running Game of Thrones in the back office. If a communications firm helps craft or amplify selective leaks, character smears and whispered “briefings” designed to make one leader look inept and another look presidential, that is not neutral PR. That is political hit‑work. And it should be called what it is.The tired cop‑out: “We just follow instructions”I’ve written before that PR agencies, spokespeople and communications strategists must stop hiding behind clients when their work undermines public trust. That message is even more urgent now. The industry’s standard cop‑out goes like this: we don’t make decisions, we simply advise. We don’t choose the tactics, we just implement what the client wants. We don’t do politics, we do messaging. Rubbish.Every communications professional knows exactly what they are doing when they craft a headline, frame a leak, or pick which internal scandal gets pushed and which gets buried. They know which narratives will damage someone’s career and which will rehabilitate a sinking brand. They are not innocent technicians; they are highly skilled manipulators of perception.If they accept briefs that involve quietly nuking internal rivals instead of dealing with them through transparent party processes, they are complicit in the political sabotage, not just passengers. If they choose to work for parties whose stated values they know are being betrayed in practice, they are enablers, not advisers. The line “we’re just doing our job” is the ethical refuge of cowards. It’s the same defence used by spin doctors who polish the image of corrupt SOEs, dodgy businessmen and compromised presidents. At some point, professionals must stop pretending they have no moral agency and acknowledge that their skills can either strengthen democracy or help destroy it.Tony Leon, Resolve and the illusion of “elder statesmanship”Tony Leon is not just another consultant. He is a former opposition leader whose name still carries weight in political and media circles. When he chairs a communications firm that works closely with the DA, his political legacy is part of the sales pitch. He doesn’t arrive as a blank strategist; he arrives as a political brand. That’s precisely why this story is so troubling. You cannot trade on your stature as an elder statesman in public – dispensing wisdom on coalitions, GNU negotiations and leadership – and then act surprised when questions are asked about your firm’s alleged role in factional warfare inside your former party. You don’t get to play both roles without scrutiny. If Resolve Communications has, in fact, been advising on or driving internal campaigns against certain leaders while publicly presenting itself as a trusted custodian of the party’s reputation, then we have a direct clash between image and behaviour. And that clash doesn’t just tarnish Leon’s legacy; it further corrodes public confidence that politics is about ideas rather than carefully staged betrayals. Former leaders must be careful when they enter the reputation business and present themselves as disinterested sages. They must choose between occupying independent roles and becoming power brokers for hire. The ethical question is simple: are you selling insight, or are you selling influence? If it’s the latter, be honest about it. And accept that you could be part of the problem.This isn’t “just DA drama” – it’s a democratic riskSome will dismiss Steenhuisen’s claims as sour grapes from a former leader licking his wounds. That would be a mistake. Given what has been placed out there, this goes far beyond one man’s grievances.When internal party contests are shaped by opaque PR warfare, citizens end up choosing between leaders who have already been pre‑edited by unseen strategists. The options that reach the ballot have been filtered through who had the best communications machine, the sharpest smear artists, the closest access to legacy brands. In a country where we’re already exhausted by ANC corruption, political assassinations and a cynical Government of National Unity that often feels more like a jobs pact than a reform project, adding covert PR sabotage to the mix is toxic. It deepens the sense that ordinary South Africans are spectators to a show staged by insiders, not participants in a genuine contest of ideas. The damage doesn’t end with one party. This model of politics – reputation war rooms, paid narrative assassins, influencers spinning for whoever signs the cheque – spreads across the whole system. It discourages principled people from entering public life because they know they can be taken out, not by fair contest, but by professional defamation. It teaches voters to treat all scandals as factional spin, making it harder to distinguish real wrongdoing from internal hit‑jobs. That level of cynicism is fatal to democracy. And communications professionals who feed it need to be named and challenged.What honest PR in politics would look likeIf the reputation industry wants to avoid becoming just another arm of South Africa’s political rot, it needs to adopt a harder set of rules – and live by them.At minimum:No covert internal hit campaigns. If your brief involves “taking someone out”, you walk away.No pretending that former leaders are neutral when they are clearly aligned with a faction. Disclose the conflicts plainly.No laundering half‑truths and weaponised leaks through friendly media while hiding behind “anonymous sources”.No working for parties or leaders whose behaviour fundamentally works against public interest and the values you parade in your marketing decks.In practice, this means turning down lucrative work when it crosses ethical lines. It means advising clients to clean up their governance instead of asking you to clean up their image. It means being willing to lose business to keep your integrity.Yes, it is harder. I have said no to such briefs. Yes, it is less profitable. But if PR agencies and political strategists want to claim any role in rebuilding South African trust, this is the price.Time for my own industry to pick a sideThe Steenhuisen-Resolve saga has done us one favour: it has dragged the “back office” of political spin into clearer view. We can no longer pretend that reputation strategists are harmless bystanders. They are active players. They tilt the field. They have the power to decide who looks like a leader and who looks like a liability..Read more:.John Steenhuisen: From riducule to destiny; DA will save SA.So, my challenge is not only to the DA or to Resolve Communications. It is to every agency, strategist and spokesperson operating in our politics:Stop hiding behind briefs. Admit that you are making ethical choices, not just tactical ones. Decide whether you want to be remembered as architects of democratic credibility or as sophisticated mercenaries for whichever faction pays best.South Africa does not need more clever spin. It needs fewer mad men and women playing games with its future and more people prepared to say “no” when asked to weaponise their skills against the very democratic culture they claim to value. The communications industry must finally pick a side, else it will be no different from the many men and women who are being exposed in front of our eyes through the Madlanga Commissions of inquiry and similar processes..*Solly Moeng: Reputation Strategist.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. 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Solly Moeng: Weaponised PR - Why Tony Leon's Resolve scandal exposes the whole industry

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