Slowly, then suddenly.
Management consultancy Bain, which has over 10 000 employees worldwide generating annual revenues north of $5bn, must now rue the day it opened in South Africa. Granted, its State Capture facilitating profits were great for a while. But the reputational damage now being inflicted on the firm is already dwarfing those financial benefits. And there is worse, much worse to come.
South African-born former UK cabinet minister Lord Peter Hain last night ratcheted up the pressure with a strongly worded (and publicly released) letter to 10 Downing Street Chief of Staff. In it he refers to interactions with Judge Nugent whose Commission, like Zondo’s, roasted Bain, finding it guilty of criminal conduct.
After a similar request to the White House, Hain has called on the UK government to terminate all business relationships with the American consulting firm. Bain’s senior executives in the US and UK, he says, are “up to their necks in complicity and subsequent cover ups (in SA).”
In the Budget lockup press conference yesterday we learnt pressure on Bain is about to escalate rather dramatically from our side of the ocean. Treasury’s legendary deputy DG Ismail Momoniat appeared to be salivating at the thought of being let loose on Bain and others “who have robbed the people of SA.” Action begins once president Cyril Ramaphosa submits his recommendations to Parliament in June. “Momo” can hardly wait. Us too.
If you missed Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget speech yesterday, the highlights are wrapped up here. In partnership with BrightRock.
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