The raging controversy surrounding the political influence Resolve Communications, the private sector company of former DA leader Tony Leon, has had in its dealings with DA ministers in the GNU certainly deserves to be investigated.
THE raging controversy surrounding the political influence Resolve Communications, the private sector company of former DA leader Tony Leon, has had in its dealings with DA ministers in the Government of National Unity (GNU) certainly deserves to be investigated.
While lobbying, even robustly, is itself not illegal, it certainly sharply raises ethical issues about the relations between the private sector and government, which the Public Protector should investigate.
More specifically in this case is the serious allegation that Leon tried to use his communications consultancy company to persuade DA ministers to basically provide it with state contracts in the interests of his private sector clients.
There can be no doubt at all that in an interview last week the former leader of the DA, John Steenhuizen, was embittered by his demotion from minister of Agriculture to deputy minister of Trade and Industry, apparently as a result of the request by the new leader of the DA and mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, to President Cyril Rampahosa.
