South Africa’s global ‘brain bank’

Priceless human capital has left South Africa. The Homecoming Revolution and skills-hungry employers are trying to get it back. Global South Africans, a complementary initiative by the International Marketing Council of SA, is harnessing the capital where it now resides.

Naspers spreads its global net

MIH Internet, a wholly owned subsidiary of South African media group Naspers, has made a £946-million offer to acquire London-listed Tradus, which operates online trading platforms and other related internet service websites in 12 mainly Eastern European countries.

South African dancer enjoys global success

Gugulethu’s most famous dancer and choreographer is teaching contemporary dance in Leeds, toured with Kylie Minogue and appears in festivals all over the UK – but still longs for home.

Branding South Africa with one message

One message, many voices. That is what the 2010 National Communication Partnership Conference on branding South Africa hopes to achieve in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Conference is being hosted by the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC) on behalf of the 2010 National Communication Partnership Task Team (which includes representatives from government, business and the 2010 Local Organising Committee). The one-day indaba, which takes place on Tuesday 15 August, includes inputs from leading local and international speakers in the morning, outcomes-based workshops in the afternoon and a glittering gala dinner to end proceedings.

SA firms on Forbes Global 2000

Nineteen South African companies have made it onto this year's prestigious Forbes Global 2000, an international ranking of the size of public companies, making the country Africa's global business leader and outranking, among others, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Norway.

Mandela: president of the world!

Former South African President Nelson Mandela topped an international BBC poll to find the 11 leaders the people of the world would like to run a fantasy global government, with Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama voted his deputies.

Supporting social entrepreneurs

Ashoka - Sanskrit for "the active absence of sorrow" - is a global organisation working to support and provide a network for social entrepreneurs in their quest to cure social ills.

Oil production in South Africa

South Africa - an oil producing country? The opening of the Sable oil field, 150km southwest of Mossel Bay, has effectively tripled SA's oil production. Added to Sasol's coal-to-petroleum contribution, 45 000 barrels a day from Mossgas and 15 000 from PetroSA's two existing oilfields, it means that South Africa now produces roughly half of its petroleum needs.

Country of My Skull – the movie

Samuel L Jackson and Juliette Binoche are in Cape Town for filming of a $15-million screen adaptation of Antjie Krog's multiple award-winning Country of My Skull, a heart-rending account of South Africa's unique attempt to put its past to rest at the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.