Jacquie Golding-Duffy
THE impression created of South Africa in foreign countries is not as flattering as it should be because missions based abroad are being “seriously hampered” in their attempts to promote the country, said a Task Group on Government Communications (Comtask) report handed this week to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.
South Africa needs to have a more “focused information” drive and better co-operation between different branches of government involved in improving its image.
The report stated that missions were especially frustrated by the lack of timely information.
Although impressed with the determination of South African representatives to market the country, a large majority sounded alarm bells over a rising perception of the problems besetting the country and the “end of the honeymoon period”.
Mixed or confused messages, said the report, could be avoided if national and provincial leaders co-ordinated their international visits.
The problems highlighted by South African representatives included, among others:
* The term the “new South Africa” is not a sufficient marketing strategy and the country would not sell itself … more information was needed on what was happening on the ground.
* Information flow to missions was inadequate as missions need to know the context in which decisions were made in the country and not just the bare facts, in order to motivate and sell them to foreigners. Also, ministerial speeches are often received late, days after the foreign media.
South Africa is presenting confused messages which harmed its efforts to promote its intersts, noted Comtask. For example, there were cases cited where ministers visited without warning and there was no involvement of the South African missions – which undermines their credibility.
During its visits, the task group also investigated the foreign communication efforts of host governments. By comparison, the standard of South Africa’s services was below that provided by most countries, especially those which are its main economic partners or competitors.