DA 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 (source: @ Daily Investor Daily Investor

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.

By Rebecca Davis. Read the full article on Daily Maverick

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Solly Moeng  23 Jul 2026