It’s tough to know where to start with the damning #GuptaLeaks, the emails that lay bare exactly how deep the influence of the Gupta family in this country really is.

If the recent #ZumaMustFall marches taught us anything, other than the fact that Capetonians love a Friday protest, it was that non-captured South Africa is rather fond of ousted Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

We have spoken before about British PR firm Bell Pottinger, the morally deprived company cashing cheques at the expense of the South African people, and the #PaidTwitter bots were once again out in full force as the latest scandal hit social media (HERE).

That treasure trove of emails also allows us to take a closer look at the demise of Pravin, so let’s head to  HuffPost SA for their analysis:

Two sets of social media data analysis obtained by HuffPost South Africa reveal the repeated use of hashtag #Pravinmustgo (Pravin must go) and other iterations. The first set of data shows that 183,620 tweets from 32,180 unique users were used to tweet various versions of the campaign to lay the ground for Gordhan’s axing.

The second set of research shows there were 89,832 mentions from 229 authors of the same theme. “As is apparent, much of the conversation is around criticism of Pravin Gordhan and targets his removal”, one data scientist said.

This isn’t the PR firm’s first foray into spreading falsehoods for political gain, with their massive campaign in Iraq at the behest of the Pentagon coming to light last year:

This included the creation of fake videos and other forms of propaganda to assist the US military and also to smoke out al Qaeda operatives.

“Bell Pottinger produced reams of material for the Pentagon, some of it going far beyond standard communications work,” wrote journalists from the Bureau for Investigative Journalism.

Let’s move on from that, though, and return to our own shores.

The propaganda campaign prepared the markets, which did not collapse into free fall because regular leaks throughout 2016, whispering that Gordhan would be axed, saw market analysts price in the political risk.

Other fake information related to Gordhan’s non-existent shareholdings and family wealth emerged on social media as Oakbay upped the volume on its efforts to lobby Gordhan to pressure the banks and other financial sector companies to reinstate their banking and stock exchange sponsorship facilities…

Data analysts show that bombarding messages linking Gordhan to white monopoly capital worked successfully to taint his name. The theme of a racially unchanged economy “fell like a burning log in a dry forest,” said one…

The document traces out a master plan to create foundations and organisations to push out a regular flood of information. These organisations include Andile Mngxitama’s Black First Land First, and Mzwanele Manyi’s Decolonisation Foundation.

There’s no denying that the Guptas are truly awful humans, with little to no regard for the people of this country.

Let’s not let Bell Pottinger get away with this, though, because their role in perpetuating this mess must surely fall foul of a few laws.

The PR game has never pretended to be squeaky clean, but being complicit in the attempt to sell a country to the highest bidder is plumbing new depths.

Absolute scum.

[source:huffpostsa]