A paid Dubai-based consultancy more than R7.7m to run its GNU operation
Ryan Coetzee helped negotiate the DA into the GNU while serving as CEO of an international political and corporate advisory company. Three months later, the DA […]
Ryan Coetzee helped negotiate the DA into the GNU while serving as CEO of an international political and corporate advisory company. Three months later, the DA hired that company under a confidential contract to manage its transition to government.
Three months after political strategist Ryan Coetzee played a key role in the DA’s GNU negotiations, the party entered into a confidential agreement with the Dubai-based private advisory firm he led to manage virtually every part of the DA’s operation inside the GNU.
Over the June/July 2024 period when the GNU was being negotiated, and for at least six months afterwards, Coetzee was the CEO of Consulum: a firm described by PR Week in 2015 as a “Bell Pottinger spin-off” due to its founding by former Bell Pottinger International chairman Tim Ryan and former director of Bell Pottinger Middle East Gunther Bushell.
The Guardian reported in 2018 that Consulum was “largely staffed by former employees of Bell Pottinger”.
The confidential contract between Consulum and the DA ran from September 2024 to February 2025 and was worth just over $470,000, or around R7.8-million, for six months’ work. Subsequently extended for one month, it required Consulum to develop strategies for DA ministers and deputy ministers, manage communications, train political staff and chair meetings of the DA’s GNU caucus, in addition to a range of other responsibilities.
