Publication: Sunday Argus Issued: Date: 2006-07-30 Reporter: Moshoeshoe Monare Reporter:

I'm No PR Prostitute, says Zuma's Spin Doctor

 

Publication 

Sunday Argus

Date

2006-07-30

Reporter

 Moshoeshoe Monare

Web Link

www.thestar.co.za

 

Media strategist Liesl Göttert admires Robert Mugabe and boasts other African heads of state as clients

Her personal experiences and values are as paradoxical as her enigmatic professional life - full of contradictions and surprises.

The contradictions are echoed in three cushions placed meticulously on two velvet-blue couches in her living room emblazoned with pictures of Olympic medallists and two controversial politicians - ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.

Liesl Göttert, a 36-year old mother of three and a daughter of conservative Afrikaners, does not have a problem with being a member of the ANC and the Afrikanerbond.

With an executive power-suit look and a description of herself as a businesswoman, she believes women are made to be nurturers and "(my) very personal view is that many more men are naturally good leaders than women are".

She is a former journalist and now a media strategist - but, ironically, hates journalists with a passion - saying some of them "are so disgusting".

On one hand she does not give "a damn" about what people say about her, but on the other she seems touchy about "hurtful things" people do say about her.

It is the face that adorns one of the cushions at her Johannesburg east home that has recently drawn controversy and criticism around her - the face of Zuma, whom she describes as a victim of a concerted media bashing.

She considers him to be one of her clients - one of those she helps package their image and assists with "strategic planning".

As if her association with Zuma does not bring enough hullabaloo into her life, it was she who sang Pie Jesu - a Latin requiem - at the funeral of controversial, corrupt businessman Brett Kebble. Kebble was interviewed by her for a documentary she produced about conspiracies around Zuma.

She attended every day of Zuma's rape trial, because "I was interested in knowing what was going on".

As a consultant she does not care about the values and or personal characteristics of her clients.

Her business mantra is: "The lowest in the next person is not lower than the lowest in me, and who am I to judge?".

"I will have Eugene Terreblanche being my client or Mugabe or Mao Tse Tung, or anyone, (Adolf) Hitler. It doesn't matter," she says.

"I have some heads of state in Africa (as) my clients, in north Africa and east Africa. And senior politicians (SA)," she says.

But what is Mugabe's face doing on her cushion? She smiles and hesitates a little before she answers: "He is a very interesting character."

Is he your client? I ask.

She smiles again, followed by a deliberate pause: "My client base is confidential".

When later asked about what she thinks of Mugabe she says: "I think he has done some good things. I don't necessarily like him. But I think that he has done a lot of good things."

Sources very close to Zuma claim she has imposed herself on the embattled leader, offering her help unasked, a whisper that Göttert described as "nonsense" .

Göttert says Zuma was advised to retain her services.

"But I have known him for a long time because I interviewed him on a dozen occasions or more for the documentary, The Zuma Media Trial. So I got to know him and his family through other political connections, contacts I have," she says.

Her name featured recently when Zuma threatened to sue the media.

"As far as the agreement is concerned ... I am prohibited from saying anything about what I do for him in the defamation matter"

She appears to be well connected and she agrees that some serving politicians, though refusing to disclose their names, are her contacts.

She says she is not a PR prostitute.

I ask whether it would be fair to call her a PR mercenary.

"I don't care what people say, I just don't care, they must say what they want, as long as can go about my business ... and I am not doing anything that is unethical and I am not doing anything that is wrong," she says.

She has an intelligence background, which she emphasises was only "basic training".

"I went through the whole process of joining intelligence after I was in ladies' army colleges, but I have decided not to go there.

"At the end of your time there you go through psychometric testing and polygraph tests ... to see whether you are suitable to go into intelligence. I went through all of those but I have decided that the permanent force was not for me and I will go on my own," she says.

Asked if we could describe her work as business intelligence, she pauses.

"Jaaa ... but I wouldn't call it like that. It's just a natural result of what I do. Of course you must keep your eyes open but I would never do anything unethical."

Is business intelligence unethical? "Some people do industrial espionage which they call business intelligence, I don't do that. Ugly. But to answer your question, yes, many of my clients come from a guerrilla or rebel, or military background in some form or another because I don't cringe at the sight of blood," she says.

For the past seven years, according to her, she has frequently visited Clive Derby-Lewis in jail. Derby-Lewis was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of SACP leader Chris Hani.

"I would like to make a documentary called Ultimate Forgiveness about political prisoners and he is one of a number of political prisoners I regularly see," she says.

She is coy when asked whether she facilitated the meeting between Zuma and Derby-Lewis at which she was present in March 2004, saying only that she was present at Derby-Lewis's request and that Derby-Lewis had asked to see Zuma in his capacity as deputy president of South Africa.

She says she has been called the bitch of the boardroom, accused of running a fraudulent media school and being the new Zuma's behind-the-scene aide.

But why do people hate her?

"The reason why some people say that is because I am ruthlessly consistent when it comes to procedure and protocol and transparency and I am the devil's advocate in the boardroom *1," she says.

With acknowledgements to Moshoeshoe Monare and Sunday Argus.


*1       It's better than being the devil's prostitute in the bedroom.