Johannesburg - The South African Communist Party has added its voice to those rejecting British public relations (PR) agency Bell Pottinger's apology and called for decisive accountability by the agency.
"Bell Pottinger, an imperialist propaganda company based in Britain, owes the SACP a direct apology and must decisively be held accountable for its complicity with the Guptas," SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said.
"The SACP was among the first organisations in South Africa to expose the Gupta-hired imperialist propaganda company and its involvement in fuelling racial tensions in our country and dividing our nation," he said.
"The division was directed at diverting attention from the parasitic, brazen smash-and-grab capitalist wealth accumulation regime associated with the Guptas, their networks of patronage, pop-up lobby groups, and fake news machinery. This agenda has weakened the capacity of our state-owned enterprises to serve the people as a whole. There has been massive looting through questionable tenders and other dubious activities ruining strategic discipline in our state entities and right in our government," Mashilo said.
The SACP was the first organisation to publish documentary evidence. "Bell Pottinger, in association with the Guptas, their patronage networks, as well as various individuals and groupings that became part and parcel of their political mercenaries, refuted the truth. They attacked the image of the SACP and branded the truth the so-called lies. They are now claiming to be apologising, but they have not said anything about the capital they acquired from their association with the Guptas.
"The SACP rejects Bell Pottinger's so-called apology as insincere and trivial. The propaganda company must account for the harm it has caused to our country and our movement from its dubious activities in association with and at the service of the Guptas.
"The SACP reiterates its call for immediate criminal investigation of prosecutable offences as exposed from the Gutas' emails, and for a robustly independent judicial commission of inquiry into corporate state capture. The public protector’s remedial action contained in the 'State of Capture' report is very clear. The shenenigans associated with the Guptas must constitute the basis of the inquiry into the wider phenomenon of corporate state capture," Mashilo said.