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You can say, well, we did our due diligence. And when our due diligence found that there was something wrong, we dropped this contract. But the truth is that none of this stuff was really a secret.
The controversies over the Guptas, the controversies over state capture have been front-page news in South Africa for several years. If you wanted to know whether or not there might be some things to worry about, you simply had to read the papers. So none of this stuff was a secret. And the question, I guess, is, why did McKinsey and why did other professional services firms get as involved as they did when it was pretty clear that, really, there was trouble?
Well, there's been quite a contrast in their reactions. KPMG has apologised, 8 senior executives have gone, and the global head of KPMG has said we made mistakes. We shouldn't have done it.
Now, McKinsey, at the moment, is saying, look. We acted correctly as far as we're concerned. We never signed a contract with a previous organisation. We carried out due diligence. When that due diligence turned up to be trouble, then we stopped the contract.
So on a formal basis, they have a clear defence. And they are sticking with that.
They are being attacked by the opposition in South Africa. Corruption Watcher is talking about reporting them to the US anti- corruption authorities. They're taking quite a legalistic view of this at the moment. I don't know how long they're going to able to take that straight line that nothing we did was wrong and we are legally in the clear, because this is not going to go away.
