Tony Leon and his firm Resolve Communications have been accused of many things that the accusers say collectively substantiates a charge of state capture. We have made a list of what those things are to see what they add up to.

After scouring the internet almost 20 separate accusations emerged.

A first, from the most recent former leader of the party, John Steenhuisen, is that Leon used his proximity to the Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership to arrange meetings between DA ministers and Resolve's clients.

A second, also from Steenhuisen is that among those clients was Elon Musk's Starlink, and that Resolve pushed to get Starlink in front of Communications Minister Solly Malatsi.

A third, again from Steenhuisen, was that Resolve had a hand in a foot and mouth disease campaign critical of Steenhuisen's performance as agriculture minister.

A fourth, from Steenhuisen’s DA predecessor, Mmusi Maimane, was that Resolve enjoyed access to government that no other firm had, and that any denials to the contrary were "hogwash".

A fifth, from former environment minister Dion George, said that Resolve had sought meetings between him and a firm that was in active litigation against his department and that Resolve had run a campaign against him.

A sixth, from former DA MP Phumzile van Damme, is that Leon "urged" ministers "to break the law" by seeking tenders for clients outside proper procedure.

A seventh, from ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, is that Leon pitched a R300 million city contract for a gunshot-detection firm that was a client of his.

An eighth, from Michael Beaumont, ActionSA's national chairperson, is that Leon personally led the DA's Government of National Unity negotiating team and thereby helped compose the very Cabinet on whose doors his firm later knocked.

A ninth, from an unnamed City of Tshwane official, in an affidavit submitted to the public protector, is that Leon met Mayor Solly Msimanga's administration in 2017 to explore how Resolve could consult to the city.

A 10th, from Patricia de Lille and her GOOD party colleague Brett Herron, is that Leon lobbied the City of Cape Town on behalf of Uber when Herron was the transport mayoral committee member, introducing him to Uber executives.

An 11th, also from GOOD, is that Resolve worked as a subcontractor on the city's Day Zero drought communications.

A 12th is that Leon and his firm suggested parliamentary questions to an MP.

A 13th, from the African National Congress, is that Leon had done "perturbing, damning" things.

A 14th, from ActionSA, is that Leon “reeked of textbook state capture” as it filed a complaint with the public protector, and called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute an investigation, and submitted parliamentary questions to every DA minister and deputy minister about their engagements with Leon’s firm.

A 15th, from the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, held that state resources had been misused.

A 16th, from Eskom board chairman Mteto Nyati, was that Leon did not play by the ethical standards he demanded form others.

A 17th, from Khusela Sangoni-Diko, the ANC chairperson of Parliament's Communications Committee, is that Leon’s behaviour "invoke[d] concerning historical precedents" from "the state capture era".

The 17 are about the sum of it. We may have missed some, but they would unlikely add anything material that is not covered in one form or another by something on the list.

So what does it amount to?

The most serious thing would be criminality and the passage of money, corruptly in exchange for influence. None of that has been alleged and no charges to that effect have been laid. The second-most serious would be a violation of moral ethics, that underhanded behaviour had occurred, that something had been concealed from the public or made to look different to what it was. Try as we might, we don't see that. Even the idea that there was an “exposé” of anything does not hold up – his work for Starlink was well known, for example. So what is here? All we see is that Tony Leon started a lobbying firm to advise clients on talking to the government, he did that, and has now been accused of doing it.