I had the privilege to be invited to the CNBC Africa live presentation by its executive director, Bronwyn Nielsen at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange last week under the topic Davos in Focus.
brand savvy with Stha Magida
In the panel that had recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was Nedbank chief executive Mike Brown, Johannesburg Stock Exchange chairperson Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita, Transnet chief executive Siyabonga Gama and Zamantungwa Khumalo from the Global Shaper — Tshwane Hub. The meeting consisted of a high-powered delegation made up of captains of industry. Needless to say, yours truly was a very small fish in the river, but quite ecstatic to have been part of the participatory live audience.
The World Economic Forum is held every year in January. It is a forum where state presidents, business leaders, politicians, bureaucrats and public intellectuals gather to exchange ideas and forge forward fully appreciating what other countries would be up to. Last year the theme of Davos was Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which encompassed the great strides information technology has reached, even though it was said that some of the world leaders could hardly use their smartphones to their full capacity. Driverless cars will be a reality in this lifetime if the Davos meeting was anything to go by. As we watch that space with great interest, this year’s theme was Responsive and Responsible Leadership. The Brexit vote was a bone of contention and Theresa May tried her best to convince the forum that all will be well. It would seem, however, the business people were not too convinced as some down-scaled their London offices almost immediately. The Donald Trump election and rising nationalist sentiments from China to Russia put income inequality higher on the Davos agenda than usual. Wealth redistribution was high on the agenda even though the modalities were not exactly tabled at that meeting. It is my hope that the follow up meetings in Durban will attend to how Africa can take advantage of certain possibilities to make the continent grow.
It was the general view of the panellists that at the end of the day, the developed world would be thinking about itself more and planning for its own needs more. It came out strongly that Africa needed to come up with its own ideas and solutions. It was not enough for South Africa or Nigeria to represent themselves because Africa needs to be united and present a united front in the articulation of issues that affected Africa. South Africa, or any other African country, would not be recognised on their own. All Africans needed to push the African agenda, thus Africa needed to stand up and be counted. Another issue that came up strongly from the panellists is that youth representation was key in order to formulate a succession plan. It was put forward as an example that most leaders in South Africa were in their 70s and yet the legal age of majority was between the 18 and 20 years range. There was less and less involvement of these young people in policy formulation. This did not go down well with the representative from Global Shapers who felt that youth needed to be involved more and more as it was the logical thing to do. There was a call to action and the Transnet boss indicated that his company would be rolling plans at a conference in Durban that would see South Africa moving in the right direction in terms of development.
So with the World Economic Forum feedback by South Africans, I could not help but be jostled to the reality of home turf. Sadly, Zimbabwe is a place that I understand less and less as the days go by. The introduction of the Value Added Tax on meat and cereal products with effect from February 1 came as shocking news to most Zimbabweans. It would seem to me that the government is bent on frustrating the masses through and through. I shudder to think what this will mean to the ordinary household that is already struggling with everything else that has been thrown at Zimbabweans in the last few months. A friend of mine reminded me that a government is really as good as its people. There are no prizes for guessing how good our government is.
Till next week, keep reading and remain Brand Savvy.
Stha Magida can be contacted on [email protected]
