The Black Business Council has called for a complete ban and blacklisting of McKinsey & Company across SA’s private and public sectors, accusing those who continue to do business with the consultancy group of indirectly funding state capture.
“These companies nearly collapsed our beloved country,” the Black Business Council said in a statement on Monday, referring to McKinsey and all other companies involved in state capture in SA.
Last week, McKinsey agreed to pay $122m to resolve criminal accusations tied to a corruption scandal, resolving both a US investigation and charges brought against the consultancy by SA’s National Prosecuting Authority.
Business Day reported that McKinsey’s deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities laid bare how its erstwhile executive, Vikas Sagar, bribed the company’s way into landing lucrative contracts with Eskom and Transnet at the height of state capture.
“In our view, paying a fine alone is not enough,” the Black Business Council said. “The perpetrators should face a jail term if the country is serious about dealing decisively with state capture crime.”
The latest call by the council comes just days after McKinsey announced a partnership with Business Unity SA (Busa), “to prepare for an event aimed at connecting global policymakers, civil society organisations and business leaders that will form part of next year’s G20 gatherings”, Bloomberg reported.
Corruption is bad for service delivery in the country and all those who are caught should be dealt with severely, without fear or favour regardless of the colour of their skin.
The Black Business Council said it had noticed with dismay that Busa and others in the private sector “who continuously lecture government about corruption and corporate governance” continue to do business with McKinsey, adding that “this is a serious double standard that should be called out and exposed”.
“Corruption is bad for service delivery in the country and all those who are caught should be dealt with severely, without fear or favour regardless of the colour of their skin,” the council said. “Corruption further erodes the moral fabric of the nation and as such it must be rooted out completely.”
The group called for those who continue to do business with McKinsey to be “uncovered and isolated, as they are indirectly funding state capture”.
In a statement on the recent settlement with US authorities, McKinsey welcomed the agreement and “the closure of this regretful situation”. It said McKinsey was a very different firm today than when these matters first took place.
“We fired Mr Sagar soon after learning of these issues, returned our fees with interest, co-operated with the authorities and made significant upgrades to our risk, legal and compliance controls to ensure McKinsey sets the standard across our profession. As McKinsey SA begins to look towards the future, we want to reiterate our commitment to the people of SA and to regaining their trust.”
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