Pretoria - The campaign of marketing South Africa to the world needs to be taken to a higher gear, says Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications chairperson, Joyce Clementine Moloi-Moropa.
In an exclusive interview with SAnews during an oversight visit to the Department of Communications on Thursday, Moloi-Moropa said: “The branding of the country has been happening outside the country, but we think it is minimal, we need to expand it. We think there is quite good work that is taking place out there, however, as South Africans, we also need to do more to brand ourselves internally.
“South Africans sometimes miss the point. We are so negative and sometimes we miss out that as a country, we need to project our image. We are sometimes caught in the negativity and forget that we are living in one of the most important countries….a country where Nelson Mandela was born…a country where Mandela made an impact.”
She said while other countries view South Africa as a significant political anchor, South Africans sometimes don’t realise this.
“Instead of branding the image of our country in order to attract more investors, we actually become extremely negative. Therefore communications has a huge task, that it should be mainstreamed in all levels of government as well as to all the Parliament Portfolio Committees,” she said.
The committee has already visited the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and Brand SA.
Moloi-Moropa said: “To us, the oversights visits are important because they are a weapon of understanding what is it that we need to do. These visits assist us in getting first-hand experience on issues that we normally get on paper through presentations and interactions with senior management and the Minister”.
She said the committee’s next visit will be at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). “It is a huge project with different areas which we would like to look into thoroughly.” - SAnews.gov.za
