Brand South Africa Blog

IMC’s Lindi Sibiya thanks a young man with ubuntu:

After the Opening Match of the Confederations Cup, my daughter lost her phone in a “Gauride” bus. I called the phone to establish if it would be somewhere in one of our bags. After a few minutes, somebody called me from my daughter’s cellphone, telling me that he had picked up a phone and wanted to arrange that we meet somewhere for him to return it. He told me that he was going to switch off my daughter’s phone and gave me a number to call the following day.

Because it was a young voice on the phone, I suspected that it was a prank, and that I would not be able to get hold of him again. With lots of doubt, I called him the following day. To my surprise, it was the same man and agreed to meet with me. I arranged to meet with him in Sandton; needless to say, he was there, on time. He returned my daughter’s phone.

I had brought him a small token of appreciation. To my surprise, he refused to accept it, and said that he did not expect anything in return. I insisted on him taking it.

The reason why I want to relate my story is that, most people are talking about the crime that is happening in our country. I am humbled by this young man’s gesture, and mostly, to see that there are good South Africans out there. Even young people have Ubuntu. You go Clayton!

South Africa rocks!!!

The Brand SA team celebrates 365 days to World Cup kick-off on the Glenhove Road bridge across the M1 in Johannesburg.

Nkosi sikelel’i Afrika. A guide.

A pronunciation guide to the South African national anthem

The International Marketing Council’s Nadine Khan takes us to the opening game of the Confederations Cup.

It is a glorious winter highveld afternoon in Johannesburg.  The sun is shining, the wind is nippy and the scent of dry grass, dust and braaivleis fires permeates the air. The kick off for the first 2009 Confederations Cup game is just hours away.  Months of preparation and speculation will finally be put to the test.  Is South Africa ready to host a world class event like the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009?

As I pull the yellow and green Bafana Bafana uniform over my head, I am overwhelmed by a sense of pride and patriotism and an intense need to defend the reputation of my city, my country and my continent.

I make my way to the park-and-ride facility, or the Itransi as it is locally known, where I park my car and jump on the taxi heading for the Ellis Park stadium.  Within seconds the taxi fills up and the doors close and the driver pulls off.  The banter and the enthusiasm of my fellow passengers are contagious and I get drawn into the conversation. It is not long before I am taught local jargon like diski; shebobo; laduma and my favourite siyabangena - a local expression for we are beating them!  At a security checkpoint, the taxi is brought to a stop, where street vendors make the most of this opportunity for enterprise, selling their flags, bandanas, cool drinks, sweets and nuts through the open windows of the taxis. Bargaining and negotiating is just part of the journey. Read the rest of this entry »

…writes Mick Cleary, the Daily Telegraph’s rugby correspondent, in South Africa with the touring Lions. “You’ll find warmth and openness wherever you go. There’s difference, too, a sense of vitality and honesty that is refreshing. You feel alive here, aware of the great possibilties. It’s not perfect, there are kinks, dangers, but there’s an intoxicating buzz, too.”  Commenter Lance Grundy agrees, even if he does go a bit over the top:

I love the place. When people ask me what it is about South Africa that I like, my most common answer is “because I feel so alive there, so free.”

Life in modern Britain, by contrast, is becoming no life at all. It is more akin to a lingering, living death. Your spirit being slowly suffocated by regulations and petty rules aiming to control every thought and every deed, with the whole soul-rotting spectacle being filmed for posterity on CCTV.

A depressing existence for any man - even passive British ones. No wonder alcoholism and cocaine abuse are so high among British menfolk. It seems there is no other way to escape - without a fight.

The Afrikaans for tree is boom.

Themba Maseko, the South African government’s chief spokesman, sees positive omens in the way South Africans in London lined up in their thousands last week to exercise their right, affirmed by the Constitutional Court, to have their say in this week’s general election. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s great account of how South Africans living in London voted last week by John Battersby, former editor of the Sunday Independent, now UK Country Manager for Brand South Africa:

Twenty-five years ago, the crowds that gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest and demonstrate against apartheid South Africa played a major role in galvanising international opinion against apartheid and hastening its downfall.

This time, South Africans gathered in their thousands in orderly queues to have their say in the future of the democratic South Africa in the same place that the demonstrators once stood. Read the rest of this entry »

…to talk amusingly about South Africa and the 2010 World Cup on Univision, the largest Spanish speaking network and the 5th largest network in the United States. The network holds the Spanish speaking rights to coverage of the World Cup and are currently preparing for coverage for the 2010 games in South Africa.

They seek a South African national who is fluent in Spanish to appear on their most popular sports program, “Sports Republic”. Sports Republic is a live 2-hour sports magazine show hosted by 3 extremely well known Latino sports personalities and is the highest rated Spanish speaking sports show in the US.

The show would be recorded live in Miami, Florida and they would discuss South Africa, its culture, tourist attractions, food and the like in a light hearted, fun way.

If you would be interested in representing South Africa on this show, please contact :

Mandy Ellison
South African American Business Club
Tel: 561-628-4338 Fax: 305-538-7912
mandy.ellison@saabc.org

www.saabc.org

An election poster in Greek outside the Dunkeld shopping centre on Jan Smuts Avenue in Johannesburg. The Italian version, and there are plenty of those as well, reads: Lavorando assieme possiamo fare di piu. Or in English: Working together we can do more.

“I hope I remember that first South African hand reached out to me, not to deliver a blow, but to help me aboard,” writes David Smith, the Guardian’s new man in SA. He was riding the rails between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and not the smart commuter train either. His fellow passengers looked after him well.

Meet Ntsiki Biyela, maker of award-winning wines. Here’s a profile from the Los Angeles Times.

June Arunga is with BSL Ltd, the Ghanaian start-up that is enabling African entrepreneurs to sell their products online and accept payment via cellphone. She spoke at the recent Aid Watch conference at New York University. Below she describes her efforts to raise capital in the West. “Africans have mobile phones?”, a well-known philanthropist asked on hearing her pitch. “Who do they call?” Priceless.

June Arunga on Western Attitudes Towards Business in Africa from DRI on Vimeo.

Durban-based Adept Airmotive, which builds innovative lightweight aircraft engines, has been named “Inventor of the Year” by Autodesk, the autocad people. They beat Sound Devices LLC, a leading manufacturer of professional audio recording and mixing equipment, and British Antarctica Survey (BAS), which is responsible for the United Kingdom’s national scientific activities in Antarctica. Adept won for developing a highly compact 320 horsepower general aviation engine with low vibration and high structural integrity. The 159kg engine is more than 59kg lighter than a traditional piston engine of comparable horsepower, making for significant fuel savings.

George Christenson is a 57-year-old bicycle messenger from Chicago. That’s his winter job. Other times of the year, he bicycles the world.  If you participated in last weekend’s unusually grueling Cape Argus race, you may have spotted him. He was the guy without a number on a touring bike with racks. He had just completed a long circuit though SA, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique with a ride across the Kalahari. His blog, George the Cyclist, is worth a read, whether or not you agree whether his every comment. Mostly he camped wild by the edge of the road. He was robbed once. But what stands out is that South Africa looked after him. For example:

At the last rest area, 23 miles before Springbok, a car pulled in. It was a white woman who didn’t speak, but got out of her car and opened up her trunk. She pulled out a bag of ice and a cold sports drink and brought them to me. I was so amazed and startled, I didn’t know what to say other than asking if she was a cyclist and if she had ever ridden the Argus. Her son was an ardent cyclist and had left that very day to go to Cape Town for the big ride. She said she hoped to do next year. After she filled two of my water bottles with ice she said, “I have some food for you too.” She returned to her car and brought me three hot dogs, four sticks of beef jerky, a peach and a pear. This was so overwhelming I didn’t think to ask if this was just a coincidence or if she had seen me earlier or heard about me and sought me out. She was a good samaritan of few words and didn’t ask a single question of me.

The Zagata Perana Z-One. Grabbing attention in Geneva as a “drop-dead gorgeous little motor car”. Built in Port Elizabeth by a local firm, Hi-Tech Automotive, in partnership with Italy’s Zagato, whose president, Andrea Zagato, explains: “If you want to survive the financial crisis, you have to go global.”  The full story here.

Okay, South Africa’s national team is not favoured to win the World Baseball Classic which kicks off today in Arizona. But, as they sang in Damn Yankees, you gotta have heart. Miles and miles of heart. In our case, light years of  heart. As the Wall Street Journal (Rupert Murdoch has given it a sports section) reports today, that’s precisely what our guys have. They also look nice in underwear. On top of that,  they give the Journal an opportunity to remind the world just how good we are at everything else:

South Africa isn’t the first nation to risk international embarrassment by trying an unfamiliar sport — the Jamaican bobsled team comes to mind. But South Africa has a long sports history and is emerging as a power to be reckoned with. The nation has invested millions over the past four years in school gym classes, equipment, facilities and training, to make up for the decades lost during apartheid, when the country was banned from international competition in most sports. The government, which estimates sport accounts for 2% of its gross domestic product, sees athletic prowess as a path to economic growth and opportunity for the populace. South Africa won the Rugby World Cup in 2007 and will host soccer’s World Cup next year. Last week, South African Tim Clark knocked Tiger Woods out of the Accenture Match Play Championship.

No, this is not Jeremy Clarkson, presenter the BBC’s Top Gear, after being carjacked in Johannesburg. In fact, Clarkson thinks all the rabbiting on about Jo’burg being the most crime infested city on earth is a load of old…Well, here’s his take. Money quote:

Honestly? Johannesburg is Milton Keynes with thunderstorms. You go out. You have a lovely ostrich. You drink some delicious wine and you walk back to your hotel, all warm and comfy. It’s the least frightening place on earth. So why does every single person there wrap themselves up in razor wire and fit their cars with flame-throwers and speak of how many times they’ve been killed that day? What are they trying to prove?

Milton Keynes, for those not familiar with it, is a “new town” — or was when it was built in the 50’s — north of London.  It is famously drab, so Clarkson is not being altogether fair. We’ll take the compliment anyway.

The Barnard supercar. Built in Bloemfontein.