Brand South Africa Blog

A professor from Purdue University in the US blogs on a visit to SA. He concludes: “Dynamic, exciting, good people doing interesting things. It’s not “out of the way”, it’s right in the middle and has been since Mandela and Tutu emerged on the world scene”.

If you’d like this emblazoned on your chest, get in touch with Talitha. If you have any similar inspirations we’d be delighted to showcase them here as well.

Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills, a blog, decides that “it’s time for a bit of positivity“.

“Got Milk?” is the tag line for a wildly successful marketing campaign launched by the California Milk Processor Board. The campaign features celebrities — like soccer phenom Freddy Adu to the right –  with milk mustaches and ad copy that explains how milk helped make them famous. How about a campaign the features famous South Africans and the tag line “Made In South Africa”? Nelson Mandela is an obvious candidate. Likewise Desmond Tutu.  And Elon Musk, the Pretoria Boys alumnus who’s reinventing the space launch business, not to mention the electric car and solar energy? We’d welcome your suggestions. Create your own “Made in South Africa” ad and we’ll publish it here.

The Oprah Winfrey Show goes on hiatus in the northern summer months. BSA blog, while not yet in the same league, is taking a break until August 25.

Self-styled value investor Adrian Saville, founder of Cannon Asset Managers,  and author of the Gone to the Dogs blog, likes what he sees. Money quote:

Located in this increasingly benevolent neighbourhood, and being the beneficiary of ongoing structural reform and healthy fiscal and monetary policies, the case for the South African economy is sound. Recent setbacks to economic growth, disruptions in service delivery and more agitated price inflation should be seen in this context. Setbacks are part of the ordinary progression of economies. Investors who are able to see beyond the shrill, emotionally-charged reactions that such setbacks have brought about in recent months will do well. By taking a balanced, holistic view of Africa and South Africa, we note that there is much to celebrate.

Ignoring Africa today is like not investing in emerging markets in the 1990s, Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s and Japan in the 1950s, argues Frances Beddington, head of research at Insparo Asset Management, a London-based hedge fund, in the Financial Times.

Riders in the the 2300 km Freedom Challenge bike race set out from Pietermaritzberg Monday bound for Paarl over cow tracks and dirt roads through some of the roughest — and most scenic — terrain SA has to offer. Two of the riders mounted their bikes after completing the Comrades marathon. An addiction to extreme sports seems to be part of the South African brand. Great website lets you follow the action. Some of the riders are blogging. Their entries are here.

The Sardine Run, a unique and unexplained phenomenon of millions of sardines traveling up the east coast of South Africa between May and July, is causing a frenzy of excitement amongst everyone and everything that comes into contact with it, reports Travelhouseuk’s travel blog.

J&J Bioenergy, a subsidiary of Jay and Jayendra Naidoo’s J&J Group, which is part-owned by trade unions and grassroots groups, is looking to build two bioenergy plants inland from the economically depressed Wild Coast, the Financial Mail reports.

Each will be capable of producing 100 M litres a year of ethanol from cane and sweet sorghum, and another 20 MW/year of electricity to feed into the national grid. There will be no diversion of grain from the food supply.

The R3bn investment will boost the local economy by providing roads, infrastructure, related agribusinesses and cash and equity for low income villagers. “Each factory will spend R300m year on cane. This money goes directly to the farmers, who will have shares in the factories,” says J&J director Steve Collins.

NESTLÉ, one of the biggest food groups in the world, has invested more than R1bn in SA in the past three years, and will continue investing in the country and the African continent, CEO Paul Bulcke tells Business Day.