Paper short abstract:

The paper draws on reports and documents that were made public during the state capture scandal in South Africa to analyse how management consulting firms influence political preferences and contributed to shape development plans set by the South African government in the years 2010s.

Paper long abstract:

This article is part of a larger research project on management consulting firms in the South. It examines the role of management consultants in the state capture scandal in South Africa. There are political debates and judicial enquiries into the role of these firms in facilitating corruption and misappropriation of public funds. But little attention has been given to the role of these firms in creating desirable futures. The article draws on original reports and documents to analyse how these companies helped to establish certain policy preferences and shape the development plans set by the South African government. Most of these visions were based on the idea that the continent would be the new growth frontier and that after the Asian tigers and dragons, African lions would emerge. In this perspective, the government was expected to take specific measures to improve productivity, to take advantage of what was believed to be the future structure and opportunities of global trade and to increase the specialisation of the South African economy and its various niches. The paper will also consider how the vision plans and policies devised by the consultants created a service for the services they then provided to their clients, namely training, reworking institutions and public procurement systems.