Time is running out for the collective Zupta mob - analyst

THE involvement of yet another UK-based public relations agency to manipulate local news will fail like all the others before.

In fact, it has already failed before it even started. Spin doctoring, which is what this has really been about, always fails in the end because it’s aimed more at winning short-term goals by kicking the can further down the road, hoping that no one ever gets to it.

Time is running out for the collective Zupta mob; the glare of increasing numbers of South Africans, ordinary citizens, the media and other concerned observers is now irrevocably on them. Every action and every new player or defender they throw into the mix will be watched and exposed for what they are.

The dots are being connected and the picture coming out is not good for South Africa. It is even scarier to know that our president, the man who has been described by the Constitutional Court as the very embodiment of our constitution, is said to be linked to what is going on. The Zupta mob should accept that their “project take-over South Africa” is off the rails; it will never succeed.

So-called PR agencies that allow themselves to be used to peddle lies, especially lies that border on criminality, are a disgrace to the broader communications industry. I am sure that values-driven agencies will distance themselves from criminal activities and help expose wrongdoing for what it is, for the sake of the industry.

* Solly Moeng is brand reputation management adviser and CEO of strategic corporate communications consultancy DonValley. Views expressed are his own.