IMC: new proposals, new board following presidential meeting

Following the meeting with the board of the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC) with President Jacob Zuma, yesterday, Tuesday, 24 May 2011, new board members have been announced and various proposals tabled, including a name change to Brand South Africa.

The meeting discussed the need for business and government to work together to promote and market the successes of the country domestically and to the world.

Communicating successes

The meeting discussed strategies of communicating the successes and strengths of the new democracy, successes in sports and other arenas and how to take the country's message beyond the arts into the economic arena.

It was agreed that the country must be marketed as a competitive business destination, to contribute to economic growth and job creation. Currently the marketing has focused primarily on sports as well as arts and culture.

President Zuma encouraged the IMC to use the forthcoming events, such as the International Olympic Committee general assembly in July and the United Nations climate change conference in November to market the brand further, building on the successes of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Other opportunities are the membership of BRICS as well as the current two-year membership of the United Nations Security Council.

Proposals

The board made some proposals to be tabled in Cabinet to ensure broader government buy-in.

To changed the organisation's name to Brand South Africa to ensure that the name resonates with the mandate of the organisation and assist in eliminating the confusion with the many Inter-Ministerial Committees (IMC) in government.
To focus its mandate on promoting the brand and successes to South Africans as well, so that all South Africans become ambassadors of the brand. This will assist to change the trend of continuous negative messaging about the country. Currently the primary focus has been the external market. It was agreed that citizens should also be a key target so that they become brand ambassadors.
To appoint volunteer brand patrons, including eminent businesspersons, some of the recipients of the National Orders and eminent foreign nation representatives that are friends of South Africa to serve as ambassadors of the country worldwide.

New board

The President bade farewell to members of the IMC board of trustees who have resigned due to work commitments - Lucas Radebe, Dr Judy Dlamini and Sydney Kunene, who represented the Mpumalanga province - and appointed the following persons to the board:

Geoff Rothschild, executive director: government and international affairs of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Moss Leoka, executive director of Harrison and White - finance and marketing expertise
Sindi Mabaso-Koyana, group CFO PRASA - finance and accounting expertise
Ramasela Moloto, CFO, National Nuclear Regulator - finance and accounting expertise

New government representatives on the Board, replacing current representatives who have been redeployed to other departments are:

Dr Cassius Lubisi, DG Presidency
Lionel October, DG Department of Trade and Industry
Jimmy Manyi, CEO GCIS
Sibusiso Xaba, DG Arts and Culture
Timothy Scholtz, COO Tourism South Africa

Other members of the board are Ajay Gupta, Alan Winde, Dr Danny Jordan, Esa Yacoob, Kenosi Meruti, Lefty Mogorosi, Mathipe Moganedi, Happy Ntshingila, Neela Hoosain, Thabo Mhlongo, Victoria Moloi, Vusi Mvelase, Wayne Morris and Welcome Msomi.