The furore-in-a-teacup around consultancy Bain & Co’s membership of industry lobby association Business Leadership SA is surprising, as it seems to be premised on the quaint belief that corporate entanglement with politicians is unique to state capture under then president Jacob Zuma.
The sheer scale of state capture, in which the powers of a democratically elected government were appropriated by and for the benefit of an elite few, puts corporations such as Bain, which enabled it, in a league of their own in terms of nefarious corporate behaviour. Sometimes the interests of lobbyists will align with the public interest, and sometimes they won’t, which is why lobbying is a heavily regulated activity in many juris dictions.As I have written previously — in relation to the establishment of the"Energy Council of SA" lobby group, by mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and several fossil fuel executives — there are no rules on lobbying in this country at all.
After some resistance, the DFFE provided a list of meetings, but insisted it was by no means complete because the department doesn’t keep a comprehensive record of meetings. The DMRE, after months of being in breach of legislated time frames for responding, eventually claimed that"no such records exist".The local business lobby is powerful, and this power is not always wielded for the good of the country at large.
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