Award winning journalism

I was in London last Thursday for the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards. It was a hot week in the city, and for some journalists who came over for the ceremony, the first time they had been to London.

It was great to put faces to names, and to have the opportunity to meet some of the leading journalists from around the world. Each had something insightful to say about the role of the media in Africa, their personal position, country, career.

Kerry Dimmer, winner of Best Infrastructure feature with ‘The Scramble for Blue Gold’ in African Decisions, South Africa, made a great speech commenting that these awards really help promote the journalists who win them. Uganda's Francis Kagolo from New Vision said the same of his award (Agribusiness / Environment feature) that it puts him in the field of greater journalists in Africa, all of whom should be working to put forward the best reporting.

When ‘Spark Africa Series’ by Peter Vlam and his team at Africa Interactive won Best Use of New Media in a Story, I didn’t quite realise the extent to how widely they work; 800 freelancers, mostly on the continent, so as well as creating content this is an exercise in capacity building and empowering local media.

Felix Dela Klutse of the Daily Guide Newspaper, Ghana, who won best business news story with ‘China Takes African Market by Storm’, got a great reception. Perhaps some fellow countrymen in the audience, or a general affinity with Ghana given their success in the World Cup (who were knocked out the next night, much to my dismay).

I was also privileged to meet with Oby Ezekwesili, the Vice President of the World Bank for the Africa region. Having been in conference calls and board meetings all afternoon, she arrived fresh and smiling, happy to have her photo taken with the finalists, after speaking about the economic opportunities on the continent.

Stephen O’Brien Permanent Under Secretary of State for International Development, who was born in Tanzania, talked about the role that government and business has to play, and the importance that the perception created by the media plays in investment decisions. He made the point that when sat round the boardroom table, looking where to put your money, you have about 3 minutes per country. Not long for in-depth analysis, therefore key indicators and headline reports are crucial.

Good to see some of the journalists represented at the awards last week already making that headline difference.

Foresight 2010

What do you think South Africa needs to do in 2010? (Aside from winning the World Cup).

That was the question that Judge Dennis Davis put to the panel at the GIBS annual “Foresight 2010” forum. A quick survey of the members of his jury presented a variety of bullish and bearish responses – as well as one too many “Pass” cards, and talk of creating rather than predicting the future. The optimists got cross-examined for being unrealistic, while the pessimists were lambasted for being vague.

To be fair, the Judge was right. For all the talk of needing values, accountability, active citizenship, public-private dialogue – what does that actually mean? When push came to shove, to state some concrete action that the government should do in 2010 nobody wanted to put their neck on the line. Which was – ironically – stated as part of the problem and why business avoided engaging in debate with government, by Brian Bruce, CEO, Murray & Roberts among others.

What we might agree on is that there needs to be a vision for South Africa. What I don’t agree with is that business and government should share one same vision. By their very natures they will diverge completely – their interests lie in different corners. Yes, there needs to be co-operation, whereby government facilitates business to reach its goal, but the friction between the two – and the role that citizens play across both – is what drives change, and hopefully progress.

Michael Jordaan, CEO, First National Bank, was one of the panellists who came back to the human resources that South Africa has – training and keeping talent. Without going into the debate around school and university education that they embarked upon, it is also a key theme emerging in the survey that africapractice is conducting of African businesses, opportunities and challenges for the year ahead.

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein took it one step further, talking about the importance of the human spirit, the need to have faith in people and their ability to deliver. However, he was also the one who addressed my question of what South Africa needs to do to improve the perception of the country abroad and attract foreign investment with a very swift and succinct response: “Crime”. How much faith does he have in the people committing the crime to stop, or the people set to stop it succeeding?

Wendy Luhabe, chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, had been the only one to reference the outside world (aside from mention of that old Global Economic Crisis, of course). What must foreign investors think of the lack of discourse and progress being made by the Government and Business Community in South Africa?
When push came to shove, and Judge Dennis insisted they give him an answer to what single step was needed, Bonang Mohale, chairman and VP, sales and operations, Shell, SA, said leadership, and repeated the old adage, "People get the leadership they deserve". I didn’t know that South Africa spends more per capita on education and healthcare than most countries in the world, but the results still point to failed leadership. Without government representation present, the panel represents some of the best business leadership the country has. If they can’t step up and take account for engaging government and civil society in the debate they talk about, then who can?

A thought provoking discussion, but one that brought up more questions than answers. Who will start the discourse? I can’t help thinking it will fall back to the media once again....