International PR firm turned down Mugabe contract

By Lance Guma
17 March 2008

As the country’s economy collapses with record inflation, shortages of essential commodities, fuel and water it has emerged that Mugabe’s regime wanted to pour money on a PR campaign, run by a British company. International public relations firm Bell Pottinger is reported to have declined a contract to represent the Zimbabwean government and help build it’s international image. An article on the ‘PR Weekly’ website said company Chairman Peter Bingle made the admission to a UK parliamentary committee inquiry into the lobbying industry.

Bingle says they were approached to ‘advise Zimbabwe’ but that they declined the offer. Explaining how they operate, Bingle told the committee that every time the agency is approached by an overseas client ‘we would talk to the foreign office, take a view, look at whether we would want to work for that type of country or company.’

The revelations will no doubt expose the desperation of Mugabe’s regime in trying to spruce up its image, which has been dented by it’s very poor human rights record. Mugabe has long blamed Britain for the problems in the country but his government had no qualms about approaching a UK company for help. Bell Pottinger is one of the largest public relations companies in the United Kingdom and represents big companies and individuals like MacDonald’s, Imperial Tobacco, and former Thai Prime Minister and Manchester City football club owner Thaksin Shinawatra. The company earned over £34 million in 1999 and £3 million of this was from political lobbying.

Mugabe’s regime has never been shy of splashing out money on PR campaigns. Last year there were reports the government spent over US$1 million on a propaganda supplement in the New African Magazine.