Govin Reddy is in charge of managing the way 1,1-billion people perceive South Africa. Despite this, he’s relaxed enough to extend a hearty handshake and joke about not wearing a tie when we meet at the International Marketing Council’s offices in Houghton. As the IMC’s new country director for India, Reddy is back in Jo’burg for just two weeks to meet with the head office and other country directors.
It is possible that the cheeriness is due to sheer relief at having to work less than 14 hours a day this week. Reddy, you see, is “our man in Mumbai for the IMC”, as Graham Greene might have described him, and they do things a little differently over there. He is five months into a three-year stint, and admits that it is still very new.
“Very, very different, very exciting … It is one of the most exciting places in the world to be right now,” he says of his temporary home. Mumbai is a true 24-hour city, with traffic jams even at midnight and a skyline that’s constantly changing. “The city is like a construction site,” says Reddy, remarking that it is becoming more like Manhattan every day.
It is a different way of working, too. Because of the time differences with South Africa, he gets to the office at about 10am. People routinely work late into the night, until 10pm or even midnight.
“Mumbai is the Jo’burg of India,” he says, but from his descriptions, it sounds as though the comparison would be more apt the other way around.
Reddy’s position is somewhat different from that of the other country directors. The IMC originally had just two country directors, for the United States and United Kingdom, which are major trade partners. But both India and China are widely held to be the world’s next superpowers, and South Africa has particularly good links with India. So Reddy was deputed to make sure India carried on liking its upstart African trading partner.
“India [like South Africa] has traditionally looked to the West. With the changing world economic order, it is looking at new countries. Western countries are courting India very strongly. We will have to compete with all these countries. We have to offer India something special,” he says.
Luckily, South Africa already does. “South Africa is an emerging market and a most attractive economy in very sound shape,” Reddy says, with desirable raw materials. The two countries work together with Brazil, Russia and China in trade forums and have built strong relations.
“There is an enormous reservoir of goodwill that we must tap into,” he says, adding that it is remarkable that South Africa can boast such friendship with India. The Indian prime minister [Manmohan Singh] visited South Africa recently, and both former president Nelson Mandela and current incumbent Thabo Mbeki, as well as his deputy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, have paid state visits. Ratan Tata, who chairs Tata International and is “India’s foremost businessperson”, says Reddy, serves on Mbeki’s international advisory council.
Tata has made a big impression. Reddy works out of the Tata International offices in Mumbai and says they represent the best part of capitalism, with strong corporate social investment programmes and a philosophy of non-racialism and upliftment of poor people. Currently, South Africa is Tata’s third-largest investment destination. “They have the world at their feet and yet they have chosen South Africa as a prime destination. Something besides business interests motivates that … I think they saw in South Africa a post-apartheid country that needed international collaboration.”
Reddy says there are many similarities between the two countries. “The numbers are different but the pattern is the same.” India has the biggest middle class in the world, comprising between 200- and 300-million people, but is small compared to the size of the population at 1,1-billion people. More than half of India’s people live on less than a dollar a day and the poverty gap is growing. “It’s similar to South Africa, but because the economy is growing at such a strong rate, the government is now able to do more on social upliftment.”
He demurs when I ask how South Africa can learn from India. “It’s early days for me,” but then plunges in. “Service levels are very good across all sectors. If something goes wrong with your TV, they will come, even at 9pm on Saturday evening. This actually happened to me.”
Consumer protection is another area. All Indian products must display a maximum retail price. Retailers can sell products at a discounted rate, but it is illegal to sell a product for more than its maximum price.
Medicine prices are a fifth of South African prices, because of India’s generic medicine factories and cellphone rates are similarly low. In addition, Reddy’s bank doesn’t charge him for having his account there.
But, despite India’s booming economy and its close links with South Africa, there is still a great deal of ignorance on the part of Indians about South Africa. “They get a lot of their images of Africa from TV, and South Africa is lumped with the rest of Africa. It’s a challenge to educate India about South Africa,” Reddy said.