Resolve Communications notes statements issued by Action SA and the African National Congress calling for investigations into the firm’s public-affairs activities. We reject the accusations made by these parties entirely. 

Resolve has not acted in any of the ways that some have maliciously alleged online and elsewhere. Where inferences to the contrary have been drawn and published, we are taking careful note and are actively considering our legal rights. 

Resolve is not a political actor, but is being treated as one. We have at all times conducted our public-affairs work in a manner that is lawful, transparent, ethical, and entirely consistent with accepted professional practice in South Africa and internationally. Not a single piece of evidence has been presented by anyone to suggest otherwise — because none exists. What has been offered are political statements, not facts; accusations, not proof; and politically opportunistic noise, not substance. 

Public-affairs communication is a legitimate, recognised and necessary profession. The private sector engages government every day, as it is entitled to do in a constitutional democracy. The ability of business to communicate with, inform and engage government is not an aberration. It is how democracy is supposed to function.

Comparing legitimate communications work to state capture is as reckless as it is revealing. State capture involved the systematic looting of public institutions, the corruption of law enforcement, and the deliberate subversion of the constitutional order for private criminal enrichment. To deploy that term in relation to a communications firm facilitating lawful meetings between clients and government is either a sign of profound ignorance about what state capture actually was, or a deliberate and malicious attempt to mislead the public. Either way, it is deeply irresponsible, and an insult to the South Africans who lived through the real thing. The request by these parties to divert multiple organs of state, resources and public money to investigate accusations for which not a shred of supporting evidence has been provided is an abuse of oversight mechanisms and a waste of the very public resources both parties claim to be protecting.

We are a professional firm and we do legitimate work. We are proud of our record and comfortable with scrutiny. What we will not do is accept, without challenge, the weaponisation of the language of corruption to score political points at our expense.