While you were asleep: The bane of Bain’s existence keeps up the fight

Consulting firm Bain & Co must surely be sick of the sight of Lord Peter Hain.

The anti-apartheid activist and former British cabinet member has consistently called out the US-based firm for its role in State Capture in SA and the close relationship those who used to run the SA arm of the firm had with former president Jacob Zuma.

On Thursday, Hain addressed the House of Lords at the British Parliament where he outlined which corporates, he’s after and why they should be held accountable for their contemptible corporate behaviour.

In his speech, Hain makes specific mention of Bain’s role in State Capture where he says the firm received R2 billion in fees and have a further £55 million in contracts with the British Cabinet Office alone.

He also mentions the likes of KPMG, Bank of Baroda, Hogan Lovells, SAP, HSBC, and Standard Charted for their complicity.

In early January, Hain wrote to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking the PM to stop all government contracts with Bain after the first part of the State Capture report was released.

The report heavily implicated Bain for the role it played in the hollowing out of the SA Revenue Service (Sars) via the close relationships it had with former commissioner Tom Moyane and Zuma. Bain allegedly received contracts to overhaul Sars before the tender process was opened.

A week ago, Johnson finally replied to Hain in a written letter and said he had directed the Cabinet Office to look into the allegations against Bain & Co.

Johnson said he was aware of the “seriousness of the situation” and that the Cabinet Office would urgently look into the matter, writing, “Corruption has the ability to erode trust and undermine public confidence and it should rightly be challenged.” He also cited the UK’s strong ties with South Africa.

This week, Stephen Barclay, the minister for the office, said the Cabinet Office would shortly “be writing to the company and engaging with them to better understand the status of the findings in the report and seek appropriate assurances to the government.”

For its part, Bain has denied wilfully facilitating or being party to corruption and has said that the findings of the report are solely based on one former Bain employee’s testimony, which mischaracterises the Boston-based company’s dealings with Sars.

But for Peter Hain, it seems he’s not buying that excuse and he won’t rest until those implicated in State Capture and those who were complicit in allowing it to happen are held fully accountable and punished.

And quite frankly, sometimes it can feel like a British politician is doing more to go after the facilitators of State Capture than what our own officials are willing to get done.

In the markets, following disappointing Facebook results and a tech sell-off that saw parent company, Meta, lose more than $230 billion in valuation the Nasdaq closed over 3% down while the S&P 500 lost 2.4%.

On the local front, the rand and emerging market pears reacted to the weaker dollar yesterday but remained flat while the local unit is trading at R15.23 to the US dollar this morning.

“With much of today’s focus being on the US non-farm payroll data, we can expect the rand to track sideways and react strongly after the release,” comments forex trading house TreasuryONE.

In commodities, gold is trading just above $1,800, platinum at $1,035 and palladium on $2,332.

“There has been a big shift in oil prices, with OPEC+ output and tensions on the Russian/Ukraine border weighing in.

WTI has breached the $90 mark for the first time since October 2014, on its way to a seventh consecutive week of gains,” says TreasuryONE.

The price of Brent Crude has also popped back above $91.00 overnight.

Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:

SA Business

Updated lockdown rules to boost compulsory return to work in South Africa – BusinessTech
South Africa has just deployed its first truly operational satellites – Engineering News
Axed Prasa CEO Matthews’ Labour Court case withdrawn, referred to CCMA – Fin24

Global Business

Facebook has peaked – now what? – Tech Central SA
Tesla’s latest recall is the carmaker’s ninth since October – Fin24/Bloomberg
The NFT artist who sold an image of a trash can for R3.8 million – Fin24/AFP

Markets

Dollar set for bruising week after ECB and BOE get more hawkish – SABC/Reuters
Zuckerberg loses $29 billion in a day as Meta shares crash – SABC/Reuters
Gold firms as dollar slides in run-up to U.S.

jobs data – Reuters