When you have a captured state and they are starting to find out, the best defense is a good diversion... or so the state capturer's thought.
But what if the advice you acquire at great cost and utilize, ends up ruining its economy and killing the very state you have captured?
The ruining of the economy under a corrupted government is an inevitable result, but the death of the country under the parasitic load is usually a long and lingering. Funds for maintenance of basic infrastructure and services are the first to be diverted. As these become dysfunctional and decay, basic economic activity become increasingly difficult.
As life become more and more difficult its easy to start looking for someone to blame. This is easiest when there is already an "us and them" society, or existing ethnic diversity.
Its not hard to see where corruption, ethnic and other divisions exist simply buy looking at the map below compiled by Genocide Watch
South Africa has a history of poor race relations due to discriminatory/racist practices and government policies and laws in the past.
These were miraculously abandoned and a new government and constitution adopted over two decades ago, however old divisions remain simmering beneath the surface.
This new government has turned out to be much like the old, only oppression results from squandering of state assets and resources.
The widespread and collusive extent of this is now coming to light in graphic detail through leaks of email of parties involved in the matter, which I describe in this post
As more and more of state capture has been getting into the press the parties have entered into a diversionary campaign, enlisting the services of a British PR firm, Bell Pottinger to guide them on building the diversionary narratives.
The leaked emails and other sources confirm just how intricate this involvement was and coming at the cost of 100 000 pounds per month.
Documents seen by the Sunday Times as well as interviews with key players reveal that an aggressive strategy to portray the Guptas as victims of a conspiracy involving "white monopoly capital" caused a major rift in British PR firm Bell Pottinger - resulting in the exit of one of the company's founders, apparently in protest.
A document circulating in government circles, and which appears to have been compiled with the assistance of former Bell Pottinger staffers, makes startling claims about the firm's role in a social media drive that sought to turn the tables on those accusing the Guptas of "state capture".
The PR firm "sought to divert public outcry towards the Gupta family and refocus attention upon other examples of state interference and capture, notably by 'white monopoly capital'", the document says. "With a heavy focus upon use of social media, a series of fake bloggers, commentators and Twitter users have been launched in an effort to manipulate public opinion ."
Soon after Bell Pottinger took up the contract, said to be worth £100000 (about R1.5-million) a month, there was indeed a massive social media campaign targeting the Treasury, sections of the media and business personalities deemed to be opposed to Zuma and the Gupta family.
Bell Pottinger has denied any involvement in the social media campaign, also saying its contract was with Oakbay Investments and not the Gupta family, who had resigned from all directorships in their companies in April last year.
The "white monopoly narrative" and its hangers on, shifted South Africa up on the Genocide Watch risk scale one notch, from "Organisation" to "Polarisation"
you can read more here
Nothing much has changed, good old propaganda has now become "fake news" propagated via bots etc. on social media and masterminded by PR companies and is no longer limited to governments.