Dianna Games
4 August 2008
column
Johannesburg — IS IT safe to come to SA? This is a question I am frequently asked, not by people from other regions, but by people from other African countries.
I was asked this again just the other day by a Nigerian professional, who was undecided about coming here to look at doing business. He was less worried about the recent violence unleashed on foreigners than he was about being followed from the airport and robbed.
It is impossible to answer the question. The man came and went without incident. But a number of my Nigerian colleagues have been robbed after flying in from Lagos over the past two years.
While many large South African companies have their executives escorted from the airport in Lagos in armed cavalcades, most Nigerian business people arrive here to little security fanfare, despite being key targets of the airport criminals.
A Nigeria-SA business forum held in Johannesburg last week highlighted the very real opportunities for collaboration between the two economic giants of Africa. The event was attended by governors from several of Nigeria's 36 states and South African business people.
What was less in evidence was Nigerian business leaders. I heard that it had been easier to get a delegation of 90 Nigerian companies to Turkey than it was to get a handful of them to SA.
Nigeria is being swamped with interest from Asian countries and is due to host its seventh government-to-government business forum with China later this year. SA has had less than a handful of such government forums with Nigeria.
Not only is security an issue for Nigerian professionals coming to SA; they say they do not always feel welcome due to the perception that all Nigerians are frauds .
There are also concerns about where Jacob Zuma and his communist supporters might be taking SA's economy.
The question raised by many Africans from elsewhere is whether SA is taking the relationship with the rest of Africa seriously enough.
Has the government done enough damage control for the attacks on foreigners through diplomatic missions, marketing campaigns and other mechanisms? There seems to be little sign of it.
Apart from some high-profile apologies, the matter seems to have been swept under the carpet and the talk of "brotherhood" with other Africans continues in official forums as if nothing has happened.
Growing disenchantment with SA has the potential to squander the opportunities in other African economies. Nigeria, for example, is one of the top destinations for South African companies and a fast-growing market for local goods and services. Trade between the two countries stood at almost R11bn last year.
SA's much-vaunted International Marketing Council has offices in only three countries -- the US, the UK and India. There seems to be an obvious gap in the African market.
The ignorance in SA about the rest of Africa, and its importance to us, as a market and source of investment, is still surprisingly pervasive.
We lag other regions in paying attention to the opportunities on the continent, where our African-ness could secure us preferential access in these increasingly competitive markets.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup may be an opportunity for renewed emphasis on SA as part of an improving Africa, rather than a country apart.
The International Marketing Council last week brought together hundreds of communicators from African countries to develop a message to positively brand the continent -- rather than just the host nation -- as part of the World Cup marketing strategy.
The message is presumably intended for the world outside Africa but it is likely to have the added consequence of unifying Africa around something everyone on the continent seems to agree on -- the importance of sport. But all this will come to nothing if we cannot welcome African visitors to our country and make them feel safe.
Games is CE of Africa @ Work, a research and consulting company.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
