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South AfricA: Toward the african World Cup

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alking to Mabel Phosa over an iced tea in the garden of her detached home in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton it’s hard to believe that when she was born, thirty four years ago, the most her parents could hope for her was a job cleaning houses.

But a decade after the collapse of apartheid, she is a proud member of a generation of black achievers. Mabel works in South Africa’s Internet banking sector and has the definitive symbol of success parked in the garage, a BMW. As we talk, she politely interrupts the conversation to ask for her mobile phone back from her 17-year-old nephew, who has been watching the highlights of South Africa’s Premier Soccer League, and of his favorite team’s game, the Kaiser Chiefs. “I need to just check my account,” she explains.

Black people, who make up 80% of the population of 47 million, have moved from zero to 10% of company ownership and occupy 15% of skilled positions. The richest black people’s incomes have risen 30%. Every year, around 300,000 black people join the middle-class and 500,000 enter the lower middle-income group. And the numbers are growing. Recent surveys on class mobility show that half of South Africans

see themselves as middle class, while only a quarter regarded their parents as middle class.

“The fact that there’s a growth in the black middle class means there’s a growth of well-educated, knowledgeable, skilled blacks that are slowly but surely occupying the emerging middle class,” says Manie Roode, deputy chief executive at Clover, the country’s leading dairy products company. This burgeoning middle class is impacting on all areas of the economy, particularly the property sector: “From 1994 to 2004 there was an exponential increase in house buying, to the extent that somewhere between 20% and 30% of our sales currently are to that emerging middle class,” says Dr. Andrew Golding, chief executive of Pam Golding Properties.

A LONG WAY IN A SHORT TIME“South Africa has come a long way in a very short time,” says Mabel Phosa. “And there is still much to be done. Expectations are high. Whoever takes over as president in 2009 still faces many challenges,” she says, referring to the African National Congress (ANC) conference this month to pick its candidate to succeed President Thabo Mbeki. “But at the same time, this country is riding the crest of a wave.”

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She’s right. GDP growth for 2007 remained at 5% for a second consecutive year, and the country’s dynamic private sector business community is confident that government predictions of 6% for 2008 can be achieved. The pace of growth, which is particularly strong in services and construction, has boosted employment, with more than one million jobs created since 2004.

The future of the South African economy lies with small and medium-sized (SMEs) enterprises, says Geoffrey Qhena, CEO of the Investment and Development Corporation (IDC), the self-financing body tasked with promoting economic growth and industrial development in South Africa.

“We finance SMEs to the tune of around one billion rand ($145 million),” says Mr. Qhena. “The aim is to improve access to finance and lower barriers to entry into certain high-growth sectors of the economy by identifying market gaps sector by sector and finding appropriate funding channels to support start-up SMEs and black economic empowerment entrepreneurs.”

Labour-intensive, SMEs have huge potential for job creation. Their growth is expected to contribute to the intended halving of South Africa’s official

25% unemployment rate. With economic indicators pointing to increased fixed investment, robust exports and continued employment growth for 2008, growing numbers of foreign companies are moving into South Africa, attracted particularly to tourism, energy, ICT, and food processing.

As Dave van Niekerk, CEO of Blue Financial Services points out: “Standard Chartered is looking for a South African partner. International players see South Africans leading the drive into Africa so it makes sense if you want to target Africa as an emerging market, it makes sense to partner with a South African organization that will have the ability, the know-how and the gumph to go into Africa.”

Stephen Ross, managing director and CEO of leading fashion retail Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon), believes that Europeans understand South Africa better than Americans. “Educating the world involves getting them to see and believe that South Africa is a success story, and this is happening – an

institution like Barclays Bank would not come out from London and pay 33 billion rand ($4.7 billion) for Absa Bank if they didn’t believe there was a future here. Similarly, Bain Capital would not have put 25 billion rand ($3.5 billion) into Edcon if they

didn’t believe in the country’s future.”“The fact that our economy is

stable, that we have a sound judicial system, that the Reserve Bank’s work is internationally respected makes this country an increasingly sound investment bet,” says Nick Vlok, CEO of fleet management and vehicle-tracking specialists DigiCore.

SECURITY PERCEPTIONSIt’s unfortunate then that South Africa’s remarkable achievements in so short a time have been overshadowed in recent years by intensive media

coverage of crime, putting security at the top of many people’s concerns. But a new approach by the government in 2007 has marked a watershed in the fight against crime.

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Hon. Ms. Naledi Pandor

Minister of Education

Toward the african World Cup

is improving; 100,000 police reservists are to be recruited by 2009, and paid for the work they do.

As anywhere, crime and poverty are inextricably linked in South Africa: the statistics show that the country’s major cities are as safe as anywhere in the world. It is in the rural townships, where unemployment is still high, that crime figures are highest. And the key to creating employment is education.

EDUCATION: DRIVING EQUALITYMabel Phosa was just 21 when the ANC won power in 1994. Her generation has



Shortly after the annual crime statistics were released in June 2007, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula outlined the government’s plans. “There is real determination to overhaul the criminal justice system. We are doubling spending on security between now and 2010 to $6 billion, while increasing the number of police from 160,000 this year to 190,000 in 2010; a lot more arrests are resulting in successful prosecutions,” he said.

As part of this alliance with South Africa’s dynamic private sector, community involvement

benefited from the government’s resolve to carve a black middle class from a society that awarded privilege to the white minority at the expense of the black majority who often lacked clean water and electricity. And the way to do this has been through education. The progress has been remarkable. In 1980, more than a quarter of the adult population was illiterate, but by 2006 the illiteracy rate was only 4%.

The number of university graduates has almost doubled between 1996 to stand at 7.6million in 2006. Annual intake should reach more than 800,000 by 2010. Investment in education has tripled since the end of apartheid to more than 96 billion rand ($14 billion). At 6.6% of the country’s GDP and 17.7% of total government spending, the country’s education

spending rate is among the highest in the world.

As Education Minister Naledi Pandor says, the push is on to promote excellence through performance rewards for teachers, schools, universities and colleges. “We need to rejuvenate the African university to teach and stimulate the production of students

rooted in self knowledge and skilled in innovation and creativity,” she says.

Clover’s Manie Roode points out that of South Africa’s more than 12-million potential learners, more

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Mr. Derek TodcEo of Dawn

Connecting the country to the internet will create new job

opportunities, and bring South africa further into the global economy. and this is the job that James Theledi, the CEO of USaaSa—the body that oversees the process of providing telecommunications for all South africans—has taken on. “We identified iCT as the key because of its contribution to broader economic objectives,” he says. With the challenges posed by hosting the World Cup in mind,

Mr. Theledi says that the USaaSa has learned from the experiences of other host countries and is working to reduce the cost of broadband access and increase connectivity speeds: “We want everybody to be able to benefit from 2010.” USaaSa is also leading iCT development in the region. “We have a huge role to play in africa; we are concerned about access in other countries as well and want all africans to be able to use iCT to power their economies,” he says.

USAASAICT IS THE KEY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

Mr. James TheledicEo of uSAASA



than 90% are in school – a far higher enrolment rate than in most developing countries. These achievements are due to a raft of government measures to raise the country’s black majority out of poverty. Earlier this year, the existing Black Economic Empowerment Act was boosted by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Best Practice (BBBEE).

This approach is shared by Zachary Thalla, head of communications solutions company Sisonke: “The work ethic and experience of our people is what forms the lifeblood of Sisonke,” he says.

Brett Parker, managing director of leading IT security specialist SecureData, says his company is committed to BBBEE in terms of its recruitment and training strategy. “Intellectual capital is a challenge for us and for the entire country – a lot of people receive training in South Africa and then go abroad. It is essential for a company to do two things. First, to keep fuelling your resources from the ground up, looking for young people with potential, investing in them and growing them into the organisation. Second, you have to attract good skills. We are a market-leading company considered as one of the better organisations to work for, so we are able to do this.”

Clover’s Manie Roode sees BBBEE as an opportunity to increase economic activity. “In turn, this creates sustainable livelihoods for as many as possible of the country’s inhabitants, as well as a growing and sustainable consumer market,” he says.

Chemspec’s Strath Wood says that the question of black economic empowerment must be seen as what

he calls “a total solution to the injustice of the past” and dismisses criticisms that it has enriched a few well-placed black South Africans. “If you view black empowerment at certain stages of growth it can look as though only a few people are getting rich. If you go further you will see that it actually has a bigger effect. Chemspec is a massive company, but we have seen a dramatic difference in the way that we think and in our approach to black empowerment. We don’t see bringing in a black partner as increasing turnover, we see the move as being about thinking differently.”

Trueman Goba, executive chairman of Goba Engineering, says the government has a commitment to redress what he calls “historically disadvantaged communities”. He praises the government’s balancing of providing basic services with long-term initiatives to create employment through training and education.

Nonetheless, business leaders acknowledge that a skills shortage stands in the way of both the government’s massive public infrastructure programmes and private investment, and that meeting BEE requirements can further complicate finding people with the right skills in engineering, science, finance and management that are needed as the South African economy moves into higher gear.

“You cannot expect companies simply to employ X % of the staff from a previously disadvantaged race when there aren’t the skills in the country,” says Phil Duff, CEO at business software specialists Syspro. “ICT is one of the worst affected by it, because there simply aren’t enough people in the country of

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The South african government’s commitment to upgrading the nation’s

infrastructure is creating opportunities throughout the economy, says Grindrod CEO alan Oliver. Traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Grindrod group offers a worldwide range of high-quality shipping and freight services by land, air, and sea. “Grindrod’s business is all about moving cargo, whether it is by ship, train, plane or road, so the infrastructure supporting this has a direct influence on us and influences how people do business,” he explains. Grindrod’s shipping division continues to outperform its other areas of business within the group as the commodity boom continues and shipping markets climb, says Mr. Oliver. “South africa is a sea-trading nation with approximately 3,5% of world sea trade passing through South african ports. as globalization continues to impact positively on the shipping industry, the country is gearing up to meet this increasing demand through local developments within the public and private sectors,” he says.

GRINDRODTAKING ADVANTAGEOF OPPORTUNITY



any colour, let alone black, to fill these extremely skilled jobs.” He says there has been recognition in recent years “that while people recognise that BEE is something that has to happen, there may be a more flexible attitude from the government to say well maybe they recognise that there is just simply not enough people going round.”

Nqabomzi Gawe, acting vice chancellor of Durban University of Technology, says that many people misunderstood black empowerment initially: “People thought that it was just going to be a matter of if you are black then you will be automatically given the job. You have to make sure that people are ready to participate, because BEE to me is about transformation and growth. If you bring in someone who does not have the skills, you are actually setting that person up for failure even more.”

SecureData’s Brett Parker says that South African competes globally in banking and information technology. “International companies operating here during apartheid had to be built from the ground up which took our skills to a point where they were world-class. I think these are some of the reasons why there are proportionately far more skilled professionals in ICT, because the country had to be self-sufficient to a large degree, to be able to sustain and justify consumer spend on products that in many cases were not supported internationally. It is a highly skilled sector because the need was there from the beginning.”

“The growth of skills dictates the rate at which an economy grows,” says Julius Mapatha,

acting CEO at Trade & Investment Limpopo, the organization responsible for developing the northern region’s business potential . “We have regional as well as national programmes in place to increase higher education, and we are also initiating skills transfer processes, whereby the older generation of skilled artisans transfers their skills to the younger generation,” he says, citing Anglo Platinum’s Mining Academy, which trains about two thousand people a year.

In response, the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa), a high-level task team to identify urgent skills needs and advise on how they can be met, was launched in early 2006. Bringing together the government, business and labour unions, the initiative has already identified several key interventions. These include mentoring programmes, fast-tracking trainees with overseas placement, special training programmes, bringing back retirees and expatriate South Africans, and drawing in new immigrants.

To ease the severe skills shortage facing the country, the government is attempting to attract skilled foreigners and South African expatriates in large numbers. This could also have a positive impact on the middle to high-end residential property sector. Many of these skilled people may well elect to stay on after their contracts expire which, in turn, will help retain the built-up capacity in the industry which will be required to meet the government’s long-term infrastructure programmes that will extend way beyond 2010.

“We are recruiting them back. It’s excellent as they picked up experience overseas that they would not be


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although an active regional exporter of refined products, South africa is

pursuing an active strategy to increase reserves, and continue on the acquisition path. “We have embarked on an aggressive plan to explore outside of South africa. We have concessions from Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and some opportunities in Gabon,” says Sipho Mkhize, CEO of state oil company Petrosa, adding that the company is looking to grow the company’s portfolio by acquiring other operating assets. The opening of the Sable oil wells in 2004 has effectively tripled the country’s oil production. added to its coal-to-petroleum contribution, increased gas output, and PetroSa oilfields South africa now produces about half its petroleum needs, explains Mr. Mkheze. Sustainable development is the key to Petrosa’s programme, and a commitment to a cleaner, greener future in energy development. “We always give due consideration to other role players in this environment,” says Mr. Mkhize. “Our activities are regulated under very stringent international environmental standards.”

PETROSAREDUCING DEPENDENCEON IMPORTS



able to pick up here, and now they are coming back with that experience,” says Mr. Goba.

But Dr. N.D. Sandi, CEO of the Eastern Cape Rural Finance Corporation, or UVIMBA, says that rural areas are in danger of being left behind in acquiring skills. “Now is the time to fast track skills transfer and skills acquisition. We have programmes in place to bring this about, such as ASGISA (Accelerated Skills Growth Initiatives of South Africa) as well as JIPSA (Joint Initiatives for Partnerships in South Africa). The question is how to attract people to rural areas.”

Nationwide, as Education Minister Pandor points out, the government is upgrading further education and training colleges, while the country’s 21 universities are to reshape their programmes with the focus on engineering and technology, while also increasing student numbers. “Our experience is that the system is starting to produce well-educated, well-trained and skilled people. Our approach to blue collar workers and upwards is not necessarily about a university education, but people that are teachable, we then train and expose them to the necessary training and skills that we need,” says Clover’s Manie Roode, adding that the skills shortage should be seen as “the proof of the pudding” that the market is outgrowing supply as sectors such as financial services and ICT take off.

Hamilton Ratshefola, CEO of Cornastone Consulting, has many years experience in the ICT sector. He is all too aware of the lack of skilled people, and sees black economic empowerment as the solution. “My view is that we have to invest in BEE to make this country effective. We have to invest in people, as we have a lot of people who have not had higher education, people who have not had a technical education. For me BEE is to go back there and look at the people that are participating absolutely nowhere in the economy and give them skills. They are not where they are by choice. The system used to produce gardeners and factory workers. We no longer only need factory workers, we need people that are going to drive the economy.”

WORLD CUP GOALSWhether the issue is jobs skills, economic growth, or infrastructure, the focus of discussion in South Africa at the moment is how these issues will affect its hosting of the World Cup in 2010, which is set to be the most commercially successful since the first tournament was held 76 years ago.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is impressed with the progress made in preparation for the 2010 Soccer >> continues on next page15468-UP HighlifeMagBAirw#B0F44 11/6/07

World Cup in South Africa. “South Africa will deliver the best World Cup ever because it will be the African World Cup,” Blatter said in September. He says the event has already attracted more marketing and television attention than the 2006 event. The World Cup organizing committee predicts that the tournament will create 160,000 jobs and will contribute more than $3.6 billion to the country’s gross domestic product.

And in September, work officially started on the new international airport in Durban to cope with the expected influx of 350,000 tourists for the 2010 World Cup. The new airport will be able to handle 7.5 million passengers annually, and accommodate long-haul and new generation aircraft that the current airport in the Indian Ocean coastal city cannot. New stadiums are being built in the southern coastal city of Cape Town and in Durban, as well as in the northern town of Polokwane, the northeastern city of Nelspruit near Kruger National Park and the southern port city of Port Elizabeth. Upgrading work is proceeding on Johannesburg’s 95,000-seat Soccer City, venue of the opening match and final, at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park as well as three other stadiums.

Derek Tod, CEO of warehousers Dawn, says the country’s international image is at stake in the run up to hosting the World Cup in 2010, but is optimistic: “I believe the government really can get everybody motivated so that we can show the world what this country is really about.” South Africa is undergoing a major overhaul of its transport system in preparation for the World Cup, which it hopes will act as a catalyst for economic growth and a boom in tourism. The airports at Johannesburg and Cape Town are being expanded, new roads are being built and rail links upgraded in a package costing more than $5.6 billion.

Eskom, the national electricity supplier, has already started plans to upgrade. Work is also well-advanced on the Gautrain, linking Johannesburg Airport with the center of the city, and on to Pretoria. The government will foot about $3.1billion of the bill, with an additional $0.5 billion to be provided by the private sector - making it the biggest public-private partnership South Africa has yet seen. It is also now the biggest rail project under construction in the world.

“One of the things we do pretty well in South Africa is infrastructure: we have a great roadway system which rivals any in Europe or the States. We have airports that are constantly expanding and I believe hotels and stadia will be ready. We’ve hosted big events before, all of which went off very well. Although the scale of this is unprecedented, it’s not as though we haven’t had experience,” says Stephen Ross of Edcon. He adds: “I think it’s a very important thing for the country. Everybody is looking forward to it – the passion for football in Africa is enormous, and the idea that South Africa’s national team will play has inspired legions of kids around the country. It’s going to be an iconic event with benefits to the country that go far beyond the revenue of the event itself. It is creating jobs now and will continue to create jobs as well as infrastructure. It will showcase a country that is ready for the eyes of the world.”

Dawn’s Derek Tod says that FIFA’s decision to award South Africa its flagship event is a massive vote of confidence in the infrastructure and organisational capacity of South Africa, more so since it will be the first time the event will be held on African soil. Mr. Tod says he is confident that the country will be ready, and that it can host such an event, but says the true challenge is “whether there’s life after 2010”. He points to skills training.

South africa’s aviation industry is the continent’s leader, and is currently

enjoying robust health thanks to the growth of air travel in africa. Zakes Myeza, CEO of the South african Civil aviation authority, says that other african nations look to South africa for guidance, support, leadership and financial assistance, all of which has contributed to the South african aviation industry’s prosperity. and in a country with a serious skills shortage, the option of aviation as a career is becoming increasingly popular among young South africans. The authority hopes to develop this trend and attract more youth into the aviation industry when it hosts the africa aerospace and Defence exhibition in Cape Town next year. The belief is that over time, this exhibition will develop a passion for aviation among South african youth at grassroots level.

AVIATION AUTHORITY LEADS CONTINENT

can do,” says Bonang Mohale, CEO of management solutions specialists Drake & Skull.

James Theledi, CEO of USAASA—the body that oversees the provision of telecommunications for all South Africans—is working with the Department of Communications and the Local Organizing Committee in the run up to the World Cup to ensure that everybody in the country will have coverage to watch the tournament. Equally important, he says that after the World Cup USAASA and other stakeholders will need to form partnerships to ensure that investment is harnessed for socio-economic development, including universal service and access.

“Africans are passionate about soccer. It appeals to everybody, because it is affordable, says leading engineering consultant Dempsey Naidoo. “You can make a paper ball and children kick it in the park, it is the game that we all identify with most readily, so from an African point of view it is very significant.”

Back in Sandton, Mabel Phosa sips on her iced tea and confesses that she’s not a big soccer fan, but believes that hosting the World Cup has given South Africans a new sense of pride. “It’s what we need, to show people what we have achieved, what we have all achieved, and what we can still do.”



Professor Frank Horowitz of UCT graduate School of Business shares that confidence: “I have absolute confidence that not only will we be ready to host it, we will provide a wonderful experience for the hopefully hundreds of thousands of people who come here for it. South Africa has faced many challenges in the past and has at times been written off – no one ever believed we would achieve the transition to multi-racial political democracy, for instance, to the degree of success that we have and with the economic growth that has been achieved. This is a country of change and transformation, a vibrant, exciting and unique place that everyone should visit”. But as Julius Mapatha of Trade & Investment Limpopo points out: “The question is whether our existing infrastructure is able to cope with the projected high rate of economic growth.” He says that Limpopo is focused on both these challenges.

LASTING IMPACTThe World Cup is about more than four weeks of soccer, it is also about the impact that it will have on all business sectors, pre- and post the event. And the tourism industry will be given a massive boost. South Africa’s tourism sector is already booming—the

country’s growth in tourism was three times the growth of global tourism in 2007. In 2007, almost 5 million foreigners visited South Africa, and the contribution of tourism to GDP increased from 4.6% in 1993 to 8.3% in 2006. And thanks to the World Cup, the country is looking to increase tourism’s contribution to the GDP to 12%.

Chemspec’s Strath Wood is unequivocal: “I believe that South African tourism is the best in the world. It offers good value for money, and is unique. I believe that that is going to be a key economic driver.”

“The run up to 2010 will give South Africa a huge amount of free marketing and exposure which can be expected to boost tourism to the country during the World Cup and in the years preceding and following it. This augurs well for the country’s tourism sector,” says Maurice Danon, managing director of Cape Town’s luxury Le Vendôme hotel.

“We want to see people come back to invest in this country. I think that if people come back to buy a business because of the opportunities then hosting the World Cup will have been worth it. It is more than the jobs that will have been created, or the infrastructure that will have been developed: it is the exposure, it is people seeing what South Africa


MultiChoice is in the process of creating a third programme package aimed at lower/middle income segments, but as Mr. Letele points out: “We’re talking pay-to-view television in South Africa, so you’re not going to haul in the mass market, and we need to be mindful of that.”

Over the last five years, Mr. Letele has been studying Multichoice’s market, and increasingly attracting black subscribers. “Our new subscriber intake is coming from

the black community.” “My management style is like my door: always

open,” he says. “We work on a first name basis here and we are also taking measures to ensure that we retain the culture of the company, which is a very important asset: people want to belong to the company. We place a lot of value on our staff”: a healthy attitude that will keep MultiChoice fit as it faces up to the new challenges and opportunities that competition will bring.



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ultiChoice CEO Nolo Letele has what can only be called a healthy attitude to competition. Each morning, before leaving for his office, he

takes time out to do his magical passes, based on the exercises he learned from sixties guru Carlos Castaneda, author of cult classic The Teachings of Don Juan.

Mr. Letele understands the need to disconnect if he and his staff are to do their jobs properly. A keen golfer, he also enjoys pony trekking in Lesotho whenever he can, as well as fly-fishing.

This energetic approach has created a healthy balance sheet. Since taking over as CEO of MultiChoice SA in 1998, Mr. Letele has turned the company into the country’s leading cable television provider, with more than 1.4 million subscribers, and growth of around 125,000 new customers each year.

Now, after enjoying a virtual monopoly for the last twenty years, he is preparing the company for competition. And the way to see off the competition, says Mr. Letele, is to continue doing

what MultiChoice has always done: understand the needs of the South African public and provide the best range of premium content television on the continent.

“It’s all about content, but don’t just count the number of channels,” he says. “Look at the quality of Multichoice, it ranks with the best in the world. We have top films catering to a wide audience; we have the best sport, we have the newest television series, we have documentaries, and we have specialist interest channels offering a broad range of music.”

Mr. Letele adds that MultiChoice and its competitors have been working together to meet the challenges of broadcasting the 2010 World Cup to billions of soccer fans around the world.

As a result, South Africa will be one of the few countries where MultiChoice subscribers will be able to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup on DVB-H-enabled mobile handsets.

a healthy attitude to competitionMuLtichoicE AND South AfricA: focuSED oN 2010

Mr. Nolo LetelecEo

of Multichoice

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