Suspend Bain & Co, urges Lord Hain in a letter to UK government

Daily Maverick | Sasha Planting | 5 January 2022

Suspend Bain & Co, urges Lord Hain in a letter to UK government

Management consultancy Bain & Co hoped it had put the sins of State Capture years behind it. But the release of the first part of Justice

Raymond Zondo’s State Capture report will ensure that the skeletons of the past are exhumed and thoroughly re-examined.

Former UK minister Lord Peter Hain has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to formally request that the British government freeze all contracts with management consulting firm Bain & Co, subject to the company fully cooperating with South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority and repaying in full the fees it earned from its work with SARS.

This follows the publication earlier this week of the first of three reports from the State Capture inquiry chaired by Judge Raymond Zondo. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture — Part One deals with, among other subjects, the role that former SARS commissioner Tom Moyane, former president Jacob Zuma and the multinational firm Bain played in the deliberate and wilful evisceration of South Africa’s tax authority.

The commission found that Bain’s “restructuring” of SARS had inflicted almost terminal damage on the institution, undermining its ability to collect taxes and track down those guilty of tax fraud and other more heinous crimes. As Hain notes in his letter, the commission found that Bain was instrumental in undermining the capabilities of SARS in return for generous fees of R164-million (£8-million).

The commission also found that Bain had directly colluded with then president Zuma and Moyane, and had frequent meetings with Zuma and Moyane to develop the restructuring plans over a 12-month period before Moyane was appointed. 

This article was published on the Daily Maverick: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-01-05-suspend-bain-co-urges-lord-hain-in-a-letter-to-uk-government/