Brand-South Africa - Annual report 2015 - 2016

and south africa Annual Report 2015/2016
Chairperson’s
report
Khanyisile Kweyama
Chairperson: Board of Trustees
Brand South Africa
In support of the National
Development Plan
2015 saw South Africa come of age as we commemorated
21 years of freedom and democracy. This milestone gave
us an opportunity to take stock of both past successes and
current realities. In response, we redoubled our efforts
domestically to instill pride and patriotism among South
Africans through promoting active citizenship, while identifying
and implementing creative measures to ameliorate situations
that threatened our social cohesion and the Nation Brand.
In support of the Africa Rising narrative and looking towards
the implementation of Agenda 2063, Brand South Africa
proactively undertook engagements with African countries
and continued to promote South Africa as a business and
investment destination of choice in select international
markets. Our commitment to the ongoing task of implementing
the National Development Plan remains firm.
Brand South Africa’s role in co-ordinating stakeholders from
government, business and civil society, to strengthen alignment
and integration in positioning South Africa as a competitive
Nation Brand is now firmly entrenched.
Highlights of the 2015/16 financial
year
Achievements of the 2015/16 year attest to the commitment
and innovation demonstrated by Brand South Africa towards
achieving its strategic objectives. Some of these highlights
are outlined below.
Domestically
Brand South Africa concluded a study assessing domestic
perceptions among South Africans in terms of pride and active
citizenship. The findings are significant and will be used to
inform the planning of future activities by the entity and other
stakeholders. Several research notes on the findings were
produced by Brand South Africa to share with stakeholders.
The organisation made strides in ensuring the promotion
of and alignment to the Nation Brand identity through the
promotion of a single, unified story about the country. To
achieve this, Brand South Africa used its corporate identity
toolkit as part of its stakeholder training programme to ensure
that all stakeholders maximise their alignment with the South
African Nation Brand when they independently market their
offerings and brands globally.
With brand alignment as its aim, the Nation Brand Alignment
Training was introduced to inform, orientate, and empower
stakeholders to become Nation Brand advocates. The training
provides an introduction to what the Nation Brand is, what
it stands for, and provides contextual information regarding
the strengths and unique features and attributes of the
South African Nation Brand. Most importantly, it provides
the guidelines for aligning the South African Nation Brand
corporate identity.
Brand South Africa implemented Play Your Part (PYP)
roadshows which reached all provinces. This has been highly
successful as a mechanism to promote active citizenship
in the country and encourage South Africans to support a
number of initiatives while cementing fruitful partnerships
with government and civil society. Strategic engagements with
faith-based organisations were successful in garnering support
on the PYP programme initiatives to promote tolerance among
South Africans.
Through provincial South African Competitiveness Forum
engagements and consultations, Brand South Africa was
able to work with these partners in assessing the competitive
strengths of each province in consultation with stakeholders.
This is an important step in driving alignment at provincial level
with Nation Brand messaging on South Africa’s attractiveness
as an investment destination.
Internationally
Brand South Africa successfully concluded field research on
perceptions about South Africa in Angola, the Democratic
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