ATC130611: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Communications on its deliberations on Brand South Africa under Budget Vote 1: Presidency, dated 11 June 2013

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Communications on its deliberations on Brand South Africa under Budget Vote 1: Presidency, dated 11 June 2013

The Portfolio Committee on Communications (the Committee), having considered the strategic plan of Brand South Africa (BSA) reports as follows:

1. Introduction

Section 55(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, states that the National Assembly must provide for mechanisms (a) to ensure that all executive organs of state in the national sphere of government are accountable to it; and (b) to maintain oversight of (i) the exercise of national executive authority including the implementation of legislation; and (ii) any organ of state. In terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999, the Accounting Officers must provide Parliament or the relevant legislature with their respective institution’s medium-term strategic plan and where applicable with its annual performance.

The Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act was promulgated in 2009, by which it vests powers to Parliament to reject or recommend budgets of departments, it also makes provision for the implementation of recommendations emanating from the Committee’s oversight.

The Minister in The Presidency: Performance Monitoring and Evaluation tabled the Medium Term Strategic Plan of BSA on 20 March 2013. The Committee was briefed by BSA on 5 June 2013.

The following officials from BSA appeared before the Committee:

Mr Happy Ntshingila – Acting Board Chairperson

Mr Miller Matola – Chief Executive Officer

Ms Allice Puoane – Chief Financial Officer

2. State-of-the-Nation Address ( SoNA )

In his SoNA in February 2013, his Excellency President Jacob Zuma stated: “Let me hasten to add that government departments at all levels must work closely with communities and ensure that all concerns are attended to before they escalate. That responsibility remains. We are a caring government.” Furthermore he said, “This programme of action will be implemented differently as the activities of departments must be aligned with the National Development Plan.”

Although some analysts may argue that the 2013 SoNA did not make any unswerving pronouncements on BSA, however, the articulation by the President can also be used to highlight BSA’s work (programmes and activities) through its direct communication with the citizenry whose resultant interaction acts as an enabling tool that promotes BSA locally and internationally, whether these are national communication strategy, online reputation management, socio-economic environment surveys, research and opinion polls, tracking indices reflecting competitiveness and reputation, stakeholder engagements, media briefings and press conferences.

3. Brand South Africa (BSA) – R160 434 000

A country’s brand impacts virtually every aspect of its international engagement, and thus plays a critical role in its economic, social, political and cultural progress. When a country is widely known and admired for its competence in certain areas, its values, its culture, it has a considerable advantage over those countries whose identity is less clear, less well known or less positive.

A clear, believable and attractive national brand is achieved when the country’s main bodies, activities and investments are – accidentally or deliberately – organised around a clear and shared vision, and when its communication channels with the rest of the world (tourism, investment and export promotion, cultural relations, public diplomacy and so forth) are harmonised . BSA has achieved such consistencies with its inspiring new logo.

BSA (previously known as International Marketing Council (IMC)) was established as a trust in 2002 and gazetted as a schedule 3A public entity in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act (1999) in October 2006.

Since its inception, BSA was an entity of the Government Communication and Information System. However, BSA was transferred to The Presidency during the 2011/12 financial year after it had applied and was granted permission to change its name from IMC to BSA. BSA now falls under programme 4 of Budget Vote 1: The Presidency.

The programme facilitates the transfer of funds to BSA for the agency to develop and implement a proactive marketing and communication strategy for South Africa to contribute to job creation and poverty reduction aimed at promoting South Africa and increasing the familiarity and knowledge of South Africa as a visible, world class and profitable business destination in targeted international trade, investment and tourism markets.

Domestic key focus areas and initiatives for 2013/14:

· brand alignment amongst stakeholders and seeding positioning;

· active citizenship initiatives aimed at civic pride, social cohesion and ambassadorship;

· stakeholder outreach and initiatives (Government, Business & Civil Society);

· National Development Plan - Domestic mobilisation and communications of NDP & South Africa’s achievements [NDP, Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs)];

· Africa focus - Promoting regional economic integration and its benefits to South Africa and the continent (e.g. Free Trade Areas ( FTAs )); and

· leverage strategic domestic platforms to profile South Africa as an ideal business destination.

International key focus areas and initiatives for 2013/14:

· grow and strengthen Global South Africans (GSA) network to drive brand advocacy and endorsement;

· influence the influencers: expose media to South Africa ’s value proposition as an attractive business destination ;

· influence the influencers: engage key stakeholders and target audiences critical to the positive positioning of South Africa [Investors, Key Opinion Leaders ( KOLs ), Media, Bilateral Agreements (BAs)];

· sustaining reputation management programme in target markets to entrench relevant key messages;

· facilitate coordinated marketing and messaging of South Africa attributes; and

· leverage strategic platforms to promote BSA.

4. Programmes

BSA has the following programmes:

4.1 Programme 1: Administration – R56 042 000

The purpose of this programme is to achieve organisational sustainability as defined in the King III report. It is managed internally via two divisions. The Corporate Services division manages planning and reporting, board secretariat, human resources, information technology and the legal functions. The Finance division manages budgeting, financial management, payroll and supply chain management.

4.2 Programme 2: Brand Strategy Development and Management - R47 271 000

The purpose of this programme is to continue seeding the new positioning, “inspiring new ways,” to all South African (local markets) and in key global markets to drive the competitiveness of South Africa . It has the following two sub-programmes:

4.2.1 Content

The sub-programme is responsible for articulation of the essence and relevance of the nation brand through a well-structured brand framework that is constituted by the nation brand’s values, its positioning and value propositioning statements. This includes the payoff line, “ Inspiring New Ways ,” which becomes the nation brand’s signature in all markets that are targeted.

4.2.2 Delivery

The sub-programme is responsible for the following: (i) Africa Strategy; (ii) stakeholder engagement; obtaining buy-in support; (iii) alignment and training of marketing and communication practitioners; (iv) leveraging external platforms e.g. World Economic Forum (Davos), Square Kilometre Array, Africa Cup of Nations, BRICS, World Economic Forum (Africa), Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and Institute for the Study of Civil Society (CIVITIS); (v) BSA-led platforms, such as stakeholder summits; (vi) using brand ambassadors to convey the message; (vii) the promotion of a wide range of symbolic Nation Building and patriotic activities championed by leaders across various sectors; (viii) living the brand, pride and patriotism campaigns e.g. “Play Your Part,” (ix) direct advertising: traditional and digital; and (x) communications / publicity campaigns.

4.3 Programme 3: Reputation Management – R54 621 000

The purpose of this programme is to influence global and local perceptions that will drive the long-term positive reputation of BSA. It has the following sub-programmes:

4.3.1 Media Relations

The sub-programme is responsible for: (i) placing of opinion pieces in major local and global media; (ii) media tours (bringing foreign journalists to experience South Africa); (iii) production of supplements about South Africa in major local and global media; (iv) media partnerships – to help BSA to deliver on our mandate; (v) structured engagements – press association, South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF), and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA); (vi) issues management – responding to issues affecting South Africa’s reputation as they arise in the media.

4.3.2 Online reputation management

The sub-programme is responsible for two-way communication on social media platforms.

4.3.3 Thought leadership programmes

The sub-programme is responsible for: (i) organizing round tables with opinion leaders around relevant themes – influence discourse; (ii) leveraging platforms / events e.g. conferences and seminars; and (iii) influencer programme – brand ambassadors as well as key reference groups.

4.3.4 Stakeholder engagement

The sub-programme is responsible for briefings to stakeholders regarding factors affecting South Africa ’s reputation and competitiveness.

4.3.5 Tracking indices reflecting competitiveness and reputation

The sub-programmes is responsible for: (i) updating a competitiveness and reputation dashboard for South Africa relative to competitors; (ii) highlighting South Africa ’s strengths for messaging purposes; and (iii) reflecting on weaknesses through stakeholder engagement.

4.3.6 Leverage strategic partnerships and expand on the Global South Africans programme

BSA will expand this online network which is a grouping of South Africans who are positively disposed towards the country, and serve as brand ambassadors in their respective countries of residence.

5. Progress made on the recommendations of the Committee in its 2012/13 Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report (BRRR)

The Committee noted: (i) that BSA has made progress in appointing people with disabilities; and (ii) the improvement in the marketing of South Africa as a destination for investment in its 2013/14 Strategic Plan.

However, there is no substantial progress made with regard to the proposed reduction of the number of Non-Executive Directors in the BSA Board.

6. Observations

The Committee noted: (i) that although the BSA 2013/14 Strategic Plan is a risk-based strategy, there was no plan to mitigate the identified risks; and (ii) substantial planned work is being done internationally to market BSA as an investment destination.

7. Recommendations

The Committee recommends that:

a) there should be an equal focus on promoting BSA to South Africans;

b) in future BSA’s Strategic Plan must contain a detailed report on the mitigation of identified risks;

c) the Executive Authority should furnish the Committee with a clearly defined strategy on the reasons behind the high number of Directors on the BSA Board;

d) BSA should arrange a workshop with the members of the Committee to engage on its programmes and activities to enable members to become brand ambassadors in their respective constituencies; and

e) BSA must urgently fill all funded vacant posts.

The Committee supports the Strategic Plan and Budget 2013 - 2018 for BSA and recommends that it be approved.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) reserves its position on Budget Vote 1: Presidency in relation to BSA.

Report to be considered.