Brand South Africa encourages communities in Mpumalanga to play their part in making South Africa a competitive nation
Johannesburg, Friday 24 October 2014 – Brand South Africa and Sanlam hosted a Play Your Part Stakeholder Engagement in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga on Thursday 23 October 2014. Stake holders from Sanlam, Brand South Africa and the University of Mpumalanga were in attendance including local business partners from Mpumalanga.
In his address, CEO of Brand South Africa Miller Matola spoke about the Play Your Part initiative run by Brand South Africa and described it as a “movement to get South Africans to make a contribution to the country to grow its competitiveness”. One of Brand South Africa’s mandates is to position South Africa as a globally competitive destination by developing symbiotic partnerships with stakeholders who can give expression to this message. “Our role as Brand South Africa is to get the international world to buy into this country,” he added.
The purpose of this engagement was to inspire citizens to play their part, in their respective spaces, to build on South Africa’s global competitiveness. While government’s create enabling legislation and policies for inward investment, local communities are critical to the bigger picture of South Africa’s competitiveness since investors set up their operations in cities. South Africa’s global competitiveness is therefore something that each citizen – wherever they are – can contribute to building.
Prof J P Shongwe, Acting Chairperson: Strategic Management Team from the University of Mpumalanga echoed Mr Matola’s sentiments about the importance of active citizenship and forming such partnerships with Brand South Africa and Sanlam. The University of Mpumalanga is fairly new and has made great strides in providing higher education to the local community. The university’s main academic programme is in agriculture and it recognises the importance of having a higher learning institution locally in order to equip citizens in Mpumalanga to actively participate and compete in the economy.
Join the conversation on South Africa’s competitiveness on @Brand_SA via #CompetitiveSA.
About Brand South Africa
Brand South Africa is the official marketing agency of South Africa, with a mandate to build the country’s brand reputation, in order to improve its global competitiveness. Its aim is also to build pride and patriotism among South Africans, in order to contribute to social cohesion and nation brand ambassadorship.
Join the conversation at:
Brand South Africa: @Brand_SA
Play Your Part: @PlayYourPartSA
SouthAfrica.info: @SA_info
Media Club South Africa: @MediaClub_SA
For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:
Boitumelo Mpete
Tel: +27 11 712 5007
Mobile: +27 (0) 82 358 9047
Email: boitumelom@brandsouthafrica.com
