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Brand South Africa’s CEO, Kingsley Makhubela and his executive team briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications yesterday about the performance of the organisation in 2016/17.

Makhubela and his team were once again applauded by the Committee for achieving the organisation’s second consecutive clean audit since its establishment in 2002.

Commenting on this achievement, Makhubela said: “This success comes as a result of the commitment and dedication of the collaborative efforts between government, business, civil society and the broader South African public. In reality, Brand South Africa belongs to all citizens of South Africa, they are the true custodians of the Nation Brand, and Brand South Africa’s role is to Coordinate, Articulate, Enable and Inspire, creating a voluntary franchise.”

Brand South Africa is mandated to deliver proactive and reactive reputation management, communication and marketing strategies to position the Nation Brand positively. The key deliverable of Brand South Africa is to consistently and coherently position South Africa as a competitive and positive Nation Brand by working with a range of stakeholders.

In the year under review and under the leadership of Minister of Communications Ayanda Dlodlo, Brand South Africa has “enhanced its understanding of international investor perceptions of South Africa as a country in which to do business; while also developing and implementing initiatives aimed at promoting Constitutional values and active citizenship among South Africans; through enhancing and strengthening engagements between the public and private sector,” said Makhubela.

Through Brand South Africa’s Research Department, the organisation is able to track a wide variety of competitiveness, reputation, and related global studies and indices. The goal is to monitor and evaluate overall country performance in a highly competitive and uncertain global economy.

Makhubela said that such empirical evidence about the nation brand’s performance and country reputation, enables Brand South Africa to develop comprehensive and targeted marketing and communication strategies to position South Africa positively in international markets.

“In the year ahead, Brand South Africa will create a conducive environment for engagements with stakeholders in government, business and civil society. These insights  assist to profile, address the challenges and provide creative input on how the organisation can best bring the Nation Brand to life. They are critical to the strategy development and programme execution of the organisation”

“Most importantly, active citizenship remains a priority with the view of ensuring citizens contribute to alleviating socio-economic challenges of our country. Building nation brands, including brand South Africa, is a long journey which requires a consistent and coordinated effort. We therefor call on all South Africans to continue playing their part in building our Nation,” concluded Makhubela.

Issued by Brand South Africa