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Resolve Communications’ executive chair and DA veteran Tony Leon has broken his silence after scathing allegations of interference and capture made against him by former DA leader John Steenhuisen.Leon rejected the allegations, saying they were baseless and not accompanied by evidence.“What they have conspicuously lacked is the one thing that ought to accompany an accusation of wrongdoing: evidence. Not a single document, not a single unlawful act has been produced, simply because none exists.”Leon alleges that one of the individuals levelling these claims has conceded that they possess no evidence to back their submissions.“In his own words, he has none — that he simply ‘put two and two together’. That is not a basis for a public accusation. It is the absence of one.”Leon further criticised the portrayal of his company in the news, rejecting the “grave framing” of “proximity, privilege and the language of state capture”.“Let me state our position plainly and without qualification. Resolve has at all times acted lawfully, transparently and in accordance with the recognised standards of our profession. We represent legitimate, law-abiding businesses — enterprises that invest in this country, create employment and contribute to its growth."He insisted that this helped businesses engage the government openly and on the merits of their case.“That is the proper work of public affairs, conducted in every functioning democracy on earth. It is a service to the democratic process, through which the concerns of those affected by government decisions are made known to those who take them.”According to the former DA leader, he is not in a position to direct the decisions of ministers or officials, and neither has he sought to.“Where we have requested a meeting on a client’s behalf and that request has been declined, we have respected the decision without complaint. A request, made and freely refused, is not corruption. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand — or deliberately to misrepresent — how an open society works."Leon has rejected the comparison to state capture, saying that the work of helping a lawful business make its case to government in the open and on the record is the literal opposite.“To conflate the two is not merely inaccurate. It is an insult to the South Africans who suffered under the real thing, and who fought to bring it to light.“I say so as someone who fought this scourge in various forms from the opposition benches since the advent of South Africa’s hard-fought democracy. State capture was the criminal subversion of public institutions for private enrichment, conducted in secret and in defiance of the law.” Leon said similar claims were made about him and Resolve Communications previously, in 2019. He claimed this was a ploy in the midst of a political clash that he and his firm had nothing to do with.“I am not naïve about why this is happening. These allegations have surfaced in the midst of political contests in which Resolve plays no part. We have become a convenient external explanation for difficulties that are, in truth, internal and political. I have seen this pattern before. An identical claim was made against me and our firm in 2019, in the heat of a party dispute; it was untrue then, no charge ever followed, and it is no truer for being revived now.”He said they will not accept in silence, the “weaponisation of the language of corruption or wrongdoing to settle political scores at the expense of a legitimate business and the people who work in it”.Leon said he was considering legal action where the “falsehoods” cross into defamation. Steenhuisen told News24 at the weekend that Leon used his public relations company Resolve’s proximity to DA leaders to set up meetings between DA ministers in the government of national unity and his clients, including Elon Musk’s Starlink.Reacting to the report, the ANC and ActionSA called for a probe into Steenhuisen’s allegations. The ANC accused Leon of attempting to capture the state. TimesLIVE
