Invitation to the launch of the Khulisa Global Mentorship Movement for SACC Members

Hosted Brand SA, in association with the South African High Commission and the South African Chamber of Commerce, Khulisa Social Solutions, and Khulisa UK, invite you to attend the launch of the
Khulisa Global Mentorship Movement.

Be a part of South-Africa’s first long-distance, cross-cultural mentorship platform.

South Africans abroad often ask how they can contribute to nation-building, and to improve the education system back in South Africa.

Now there is a flexible, easy and sustainable way for members of the South African Diaspora to make an immediate contribution to the quality of education and training in a two-way exchange between those living abroad, and those studying at home. 

Become a mentor for just two hours per month, and Khulisa will match you with a mentee whose development needs are aligned to your skills, experience, interest and passion. Learn how to mentor, and gain skills that will be valuable to your future life and career.

Keynote Speaker – Salome Fenyane
Khulisa’s Global Mentorship Movement leader. A recognized public speaker, inspirational storyteller, author and mentor.

Date: 16th June 2016
Time: 18h30 – 21h00
Place: South Africa House, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DP
RSVP: Before 13th June.

Space is limited.
Click HERE to RSVP

Khulisa Social Solutions, established in 1997 as a Non-Profit Organisation focusing on sustainable development, community engagement and social engineering, and Khulisa UK, a key player in the Criminal Justice Sector.

Several South African Chamber Directors and Advisory Board members attended a seminar at the Old Mutual offices in London on Wednesday 11th May to hear Dr Mkhize, Treasurer General of the ANC, and a panel of experts on South Africa outline their views on the current state of the South African economy and plans to overcome the challenges currently being experienced and get it back on the path to growth.

The South African Chamber of Commerce in the UK surpassed even their own high standards with a magnificent Business Awards gala dinner in the impressive Conservatory at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Kensington last Wednesday. Over one hundred and fifty sponsors, members and their guests sang songs led by lead sponsor Brand South Africa’s Pumela Salela and the awards ceremony ended with two enthusiastic members of the audience leaping onto the stage and leading the assembled gathering in a joyous rendition of Shosholoza and Inkosi Sikelele. 

Comments flooded in from members and guests after the event congratulating the Chamber Board of Directors on an event that was “even better than last year”. One nominee remarked to a Chamber Director on the evening “I attend a lot of awards ceremonies and I must say that this event beats them all hands down. A superb event. I can’t wait to see what you do next year”

James Endersby, Managing Director of London based Opinium Research and Chairman of Street Kids International, won the first award from an impressive list of nominees and was crowned Business Leader of the year. James was one of ten award winners announced during the evening with Viola Ncube receiving a special Chamber CEO award from the South African Chamber CEO David Butler for her outstanding service to the women of South Africa.

The awards evening, an eagerly packed occasion which was oversubscribed with several members disappointed that they couldn’t get tickets when they tried to book too late, saw South African business men and women from all walks of life rubbing shoulders with the Deputy South African High Commissioner Mr Golden Netswiswe and Lord Peter Hain who proved to be an entertaining guest speaker, as well as the Chamber Chair Melissa Powys-Rodrigues, Chamber CEO David Butler and the Board of Directors and Advisory Board members.

In quick succession Michael Butler received the Entrepreneur of the Year award, Ben Botes the Innovator of the Year award and Michelle Dunne was given her Woman in Business of the Year award by sponsor and Chamber Director Sharon Constancon. Simon Shibambu was awarded Rising Star of the Year before Mike Abbot from Advisory Board member Sable presented Lyndon Worrall with the New Business of the Year award. Newly married Pumela Salela, Country Manager of lead sponsor Brand South Africa gave an entertaining speech early on before returning to the stage to present Richard Swart with the SA-UK Promotion of Bilateral Trade Award. The NGO Promotion of Development award was presented to Ubuntu Education Fund before Chamber Chair Melissa Powys- Rodrigues presented the Chamber sponsored Giving Back award to Tamzin Ractliffe.   

After the awards the celebrants enjoyed the twelve course Tastes of South Africa buffet consisting of South African favourites ranging from Bobotie and Bunny Chow to Melktert and koeksisters. Winners and other members clamoured to have their picture taken in front of the Brand South banner.

Last year’s awards dinner was great but this year was even better was the view heard from all attending. Well done Chamber Business Awards winners. The Chamber Directors are already planning next year’s event and will almost certainly up their game even further if this year’s event is anything to go by.

SA CHAMBER CEO David Butler chairs Chatham House meeting with the Democratic Alliance’s JHB Mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba.

The annual SA Business awards will be held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel at 6.30pm on 20th April 2016. To purchase tickets please contact Ryan on <[email protected].uk> or go to the SACC  awards website: http://awards.southafricanchamber.co.uk/

The South African Business Awards will be presented to the winners at a prestigious event in the Conservatory at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Harrington Gardens, Kensington, London on the evening of Wednesday 20th April. Each Business Award nominee will be presented with a framed certificate honouring their Business Award nomination with the winner in each category receiving the attractive desktop South African Business Award. A feature of the Business Awards evening will be the five star Tastes of South Africa buffet consisting of twelve of your favourite South African dishes. To book tickets for the South African Business Awards event on Wednesday 20th April click here. We recommend that you book early since places at the prestigious Awards event are limited despite the size of the impressive palm fringed Conservatory at the four star Millennium Gloucester Hotel.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO THE MAIN AWARDS WEBSITE

It’s time to once again honour those South Africans who have done the most to promote South Africa and South African business in the past year. It’s time for your Chamber’s South African Business Awards 2016.

Here is your chance to vote for your favourite South African business man or woman living in the UK.  The South African Business Award judges, all top business men and women in their own right and including several previous South African Business Award winners, will meet to vote on who each of them think should be the winners of each award. 

The South African Business Awards will be presented to the winners at a prestigious event in the Conservatory at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Harrington Gardens, Kensington, London on the evening of Wednesday 20th April. Each Business Award nominee will be presented with a framed certificate honouring their Business Award nomination with the winner in each category receiving the attractive desktop South African Business Award. A feature of the Business Awards evening will be the five star Tastes of South Africa buffet consisting of twelve of your favourite South African dishes. To book tickets for the South African Business Awards event on Wednesday 20th April click here. We recommend that you book early since places at the prestigious Awards event are limited despite the size of the impressive palm fringed Conservatory at the four star Millennium Gloucester Hotel.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO THE MAIN AWARDS WEBSITE

By John Battersby

The hallowed halls of the British establishment opened its doors – and its heart – this week to embrace the role of the Rivonia accused in providing inspiration and hope in the darkest days of apartheid and giving the country the opportunity of forging a just and democratic future. The red carpet was unfurled for Denis Goldberg, Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada, George Bizos and Lord Joel Joffe – and Andrew Mlangeni represented by his son, Sello, in his father’s absence due to ill health.

Goldberg and Kathrada, once branded as terrorists and criminals by the British government, were embraced in the inner sanctum of 10 Downing Street and their life achievements celebrated at a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and a moving ceremony at Guildhall where the four were awarded the Freedom of the City of London. The formal British ceremony – steeped in tradition dating back to the 13th Century- in the impressive Guildhall chamber contrasted with the down-to-earth and informal interaction of the visiting South Africans. But the British hosts appeared comfortable with the mingling of the two.

The Freedom of London ceremony was attended by the Lord Mayor of the City of London in Guildhall, the administrative headquarters of the City of London Corporation, and was followed by a formal lunch for 40 hosted by the “Chief Commoner” on Wednesday in a whirlwind three days of high-level events. Lord Joffe, who was the instructing attorney in the Rivonia trial and wrote the definitive book on the trial, described advocate (barrister) George Bizos as one of the greatest “silks” of his generation and a “brilliant strategist”. Joffe, the leading South African philanthropist in the UK, invited 50 guests to the gala evening to recognise their key role in the anti-apartheid struggle. He has devoted much of his life to ensure that the role of Bram Fischer QC as head of the Rivonia legal team is given due recognition. Apart from Downing Street and Guildhall, the visit included a gala event at London’s premier Grosvenor House Hotel attended by 750 people, a packed panel event at The Guardian newspaper and a meeting with lawyers at the House of Lords.

Cameron praised the Rivonia veterans for their leadership and courage following a 30-minute conversation with the four and Baroness Patricia Scotland, now Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, praised them for having sacrificed their own lives and freedom for the freedom of others. At the gala evening, one of the keynote speakers – Makaziwe Mandela, the late Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter – praised the Rivonia veterans for “speaking truth to power even when it is their own government”. She said that her father dreamed of a “glorious new South Africa” in which there would be no betrayal of colleagues. “We children paid a price but it was worth it,” Mandela said. “Today we have a better quality of life.”

Baroness Scotland, the first woman and the first black Briton to occupy the role of Attorney General of England and Wales (2007-2010), said that Nelson Mandela and his colleagues in the Rivonia trial had personally inspired her to become a lawyer. “Each of you are the embodiment of freedom because you gave up your own freedom for the freedom of others,” said Baroness Scotland who is also the first black woman to be an alderman (councillor) in the City of London. “For giving me my freedom it is a great honour to be part of a ceremony awarding you the Freedom of the City of London,” she said.

At the Guildhall ceremony the four Rivonia heroes were required to swear allegiance to the Queen and were presented with little books instructing them how to be good citizens. Goldberg winked in the direction of the audience in several occasions and kept his fingers crossed. Being a Freeman of London, which once held great practical advantages for being allowed to trade freely in the City, is now of purely symbolic value. It allows Freeman to drive their sheep across London Bridge to the Smithfield meat market.

Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu were both recipients of the award as was the Bafana Captain Aaron Mokoena in 2010 and former South African High Commissioner Zola Skweyiya. Goldberg, whose task was to build up arms and ammunition for the violent , but non lethal, overthrow of the apartheid state through a campaign of sabotage against buildings in the 1960’s, was the de facto spokesman for the group and entertained his hosts with his down-to-earth frankness in defending the actions and intentions of the Rivonia insurrectionists. “There was never any doubt in our minds that apartheid would die before we did,” he said. “The only surprise was that it took so long,” said Goldberg who called in a BBC interview during his visit for a renewal of the leadership of the African National Congress at every level of Government. “I have no regrets about what we did – not one,” he said. “But we could have done better…we could have done it more effectively.”

Goldberg was speaking at a panel chaired by Lord Hain of Neath, himself a leading anti-apartheid campaigner who led the stop-the-tour boycott and went on to become Leader of the House of Commons and was enobled last year as a labour Peer. Hain was three times a Minister in the last Labour Government. The visit was the brainchild of Sir Nicholas Stadlen, a retired English High Court judge who interviewed Denis Goldberg  two years ago and became fascinated with the Rivonia trial and its central place in South Africa’s transition as well as its lessons for a troubled world. As a former High Court Judge, Stadlen was particularly intrigued with the paradox which was central to the South African dilemma: that in order to end oppression and improve or overthrow unjust apartheid laws which the majority had not voted for and which they had no legal power to vote against, the Rivonia group concluded that they had no option but to break the law. He is planning to create a mulitmedia website under the umbrella of a charity know as “Life is Wonderful” which was also the name of the gala event on Monday night. It captures the moment of sentence in the Rivonia trial which was literally a matter of life and death. Goldberg’s mother called out to him: What is it? “Life,” he replied. “Life is Wonderful”.

Stadlen’s mission is to make the Rivonia story accessible to a wider global audience and particularly to the youth and leaders of tomorrow to inspire them with the qualities exemplified by the Rivonia group: courage, commitment ,integrity, selflessness and belief that ordinary people can change the world. Kathrada said that there were three key elements that made Mandela such a potent leader. Firstly, he made clear to us that in prison we were no longer leaders and could not give instructions to those outside. “He made it clear that it was our job to look after those who were in prison,” he said. Secondly, Mandela said that the focus of their struggle in prison should not be directed against the systematic humiliation they were subjected to in jail (although they were unflinching in their refusal ever to compromise their dignty), but that they should keep their focus on the long-term objectives. Thirdly, Mandela participated personally in the various hunger-strikes that were held in prison.

The visit was sponsored by the City of London and a gala event in aid of the global charity Global Citizen which runs campaigns and lobbies with governments to end poverty in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals. The audience was studded with celebrities and former Prime Ministers including former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the former Prime Minister of Denmark.

The proceeds of the fundraising gala will be divided amongst the charitable foundations of the three Rivonia veterans and Global Citizen.

It is our pleasure to announce that the surviving members of the Rivonia Trial accused and legal team – Denis Goldberg, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, George Bizos and Lord Joel Joffe – will receive the Freedom of the City of London on Wednesday 27 January 2016. The event will consist of a Q&A session with Lord Peter Hain at 11am and the ceremony at Noon in the Livery Hall, Guildhall.

You are cordially invited to attend both the Q&A and the ceremony. Guests should arrive at Guildhall by 10.45am. Access to the Livery Hall may be gained via the Basinghall Street entrance, marked as “H” on the attached map. The dress code for this occasion is lounge suit or equivalent.

There is a limited capacity to this unique event and ceremony. Please book your spot at www.lifeiswonderful.global/thefreedoms as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Dennis Marcus at [email protected].

The South African Chamber of Commerce UK deeply regretted the negative impact on business and investment that the removal of South Africa’s respected Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene had on the South African currency although we applaud the decision to ultimately replace him with the highly respected previous Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. While the resultant further weakening of the rand will make South African exports cheaper – and imports more expensive – it will continue to have an overall negative impact on business confidence, two-way trade and much-needed foreign direct investment. The SA Chamber will do everything in its power to ensure that the wheels of business and investment keep turning under these very challenging conditions.

Melissa Powys-Rodrigues
Chairperson, South African Chamber of Commerce

– By John Battersby

The South African Chamber of Commerce UK, based in London, acts as a facilitator for investment both within the UK and into South Africa. We are an apolitical organisation that further provides a platform for engagement with political leaders for our business members. It is important to engage at this level to provide businesses an opportunity to voice concerns over matters such as bilateral trade and how this is affected by political policies and agendas. To this end and for the very first time, we engaged with the Economic Freedom Party (“EEF”) and its leader, Commander in Chief, Julius Malema.

The EFF is a South African left wing party that has ever increasing support amongst the working class in South Africa, currently holding 25 seats in Parliament – no small feat given the party was only formed in 2013. At a meeting on Thursday, 26 November 2015, with leading members of the South African Chamber of Commerce UK he said: “If investors in South Africa want their investments to be stable and productive they need to issue shares to the workers rather than enter into corrupt relationships with politically-connected individuals. Mr Malema was here to address several groups of investors in London this week.

He said that black economic empowerment had been a disaster in South Africa and was at the heart of the country’s economic woes and the collapse of State-owned corporations such as SAA and the SABC.

“So-called Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment is a corrupt relationship between the business community and politically-connected people in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) who then offer protection to those who have empowered them,” Malema said.

Malema said the vast majority of South Africans had been excluded from the benefits which a strong private sector brought and it was time for a gear-change in the business community.

He said business leaders were beginning to realise that only real protection they could have was through the relationship with their workforce.

“We have a government which has institutionalised corruption and is behaving like a headless chicken,” he said referring to the capitulation on university fees without addressing core issue of how to make education available to all.

Malema addressed a small group of top British and US investors in South Africa at a lunch hosted by Rob Hersov, founder and chairman of Invest Africa, on Tuesday and on Wednesday Malema travelled to Oxford to deliver an address at the Student Union at Oxford University where the son of Dali Mpofu, chair of the EFF, is a student.

Malema was due today (Friday) to address the prestigious Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), Britain’s leading policy think-tank.

British investors and the heads of major companies with their headquarters in London have been listening intently to Malema’s message and have expressed surprise at his relatively pragmatic approach towards business despite his commitment to Marxist-Leninist ideology and intention to nationalise banks and land if the EFF won power in an election.

Malema said that EFF was interested only in peaceful change through the ballot box and would under no circumstances enter into coalitions with the ruling ANC at any level of government.

“If we enter into coalitions it will be with opposition parties,” he said, adding that a central goal of the EFF was to break the “arrogance of the ANC”.

Speaking yesterday at a meeting of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the UK, hosted by the global accounting firm Deloitte, Malema said that workers would not be going on strike and if they had a share in the business and received dividends. Instead they would then have a vested interest in the success of the business.

The meeting was convened by Melissa Powys-Rodrigues, Director and Chair of the SA Chamber in the UK. Debbie Thomas, Partner at Deloitte LLP and Head of Africa Services, who chaired the question-and-answer session.

The meeting had overtones of the ice-breaker meetings that took place in the mid 1980’s between the ANC and the South African business community initiated by then Anglo American CEO, the late Gavin Relly. Anglo American was represented at yesterday’s meeting of the South African Chamber of Commerce UK.

Malema said that some companies, such as Lonmin, had not only neglected their work force but had also shifted their profits to off-shore tax havens such as Bermuda.

During question time, Malema had a protracted dialogue with Stephen Koseff, the Global CEO of Investec, who said that while he agreed with much of what Malema had said about worker shareholder schemes he appealed to him not to be so “radical” and to scare people but rather to adopt a softer approach.

Koseff said a partnership between capital and business was possible but needed to be discussed in a calmer atmosphere.

They had a robust exchange over the issue of state ownership versus the private sector and both pointed out failures with both state and private ownership respectively.

Calling on investors to enter into partnerships with their workforce Malema said:

“Come and invest and come and help the people to be part of the wealth creation process,” he said.

“It can’t be business as usual. The people are saying: ‘You cannot work on our land and we don’t benefit. Instead of giving shares to the Cyril Ramaphosa’s and Patrice Motsepe’s you should be giving shares to the workers.”

He said if business put buying power in the hands of the workers, the country would grow and business would prosper. Managements and the bosses would then be “one happy family” working towards the same goal and with a shared stake in the success of the business.

He said a minimum wage had not collapsed the economies of Germany or Brazil and a R4500 (GBP 200) minimum wage would not collapse the South African economy.

Malema said that the EFF was neither anti-white or anti-business.

“We are not anti-white,” Malema said. “We are pro-black. At present those who benefit from the economy are white and the victims are black Africans,” he said, adding that the EFF did not want to replace white supremacy with black supremacy.

“We won’t allow white supremacy to be defended. We need people and not colour,” he said.

He said the EFF wanted young South Africans abroad to bring their skills and experience home and help build a new country.

(John Battersby is a Director of the South African Chamber of Commerce UK, author, journalist and an independent consultant.)