The View Point

Guest Presenter: Lincoln Mali, CEO Net1

Women in leadership

Guest: Gloria Serobe, Chairperson of the Solidarity Fund

Guest: Dr Ashely Subbiah, Information Access Officer at UKZN’s Disability Support Unit

Guest: Mpumi Maesela,Director of SE Holdings

Guest: Motse Mfuleni, Founder and chairman of the ICT Summit

Guest: Tholoana Tlhobelo, Founder of the Tokelo Foundation for Cerebral Palsy Awareness (Health NGO)]

Guest: Ashley Peter, Chairman of Umgeni Steam Railway (Heritage NGO)]

Guest: Saul Molobi, Disability Rights Advocate

Saul Molobi is a Fellow of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing, and touted by many as one of the foremost thought leaders on competitive identity and public diplomacy with experience in brand management, cultural industries and international relations.

He’sm a former South African Consul-General to Milan, Italy and he has also served as a Commissioner at the Venice Art/Architecture Biennale.

He has initiated and mounted monuments such as statues, memorial plaques, tree planting and a mural in honour of Nelson Mandela in Italy – these remain tourist attractions in Italy to this day. This last bit is iconised as a chapter in his latest book, “De/constructing brand Africa: A Practitioner’s Perspective”.

Saul’s highest qualifications are an MA in Dramatic Art from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MSc in Global Marketing from the University of Liverpool. A former Publishing Director of Heinemann Publishers, my earlier book is titled “Sound and Fury: The Chronicles of Healing” whose “Foreword” was written by H.E. Kgalema Motlanthe, former president of South Africa. Saul is currently a publisher of your favourite pan African business news portal, Jambo Africa Online and the Convenor of the Biashara Services and Products Africa (BiSPA) Conference and Exhibition – both platforms promote “Made in Africa” service and product brands.

Saul has been nominated twice, in 2020 and 2022 (please do vote by clicking here as the voting closes on 30 November) for “The World CEO of the Year Award” by the US-based World CEO Rankings Board and his company, Brandhill Africa™ was recognised with the “Best Brand Award” at the “Africa Brand Leadership Awards 2020” hosted by the World Brand Congress.

The Takeover: Disability Awareness Month

Saul is in conversation with Masingita Masunga and Thabo Dube - celebrating success beyond disabilities and also engaging on how to mainstream issues of disability.

Title: [• Ms.] Name: [• Masingita Masunga] Position AND org.: [• Disability Rights Advocate, Designer] STUDIO JHB Title: [• Mr.] Name: [• Thabo Dube] Position AND org.: [• Designer]

Guest: Johanna Leblanc, Managing Partner at Jleblanc Global Consulting 

Millions of Americans will vote in the midterm elections today, with the balance of power in Congress at stake. The entire US House of Representatives, about a third of the Senate and key state governorships are up for grabs.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and ex-President Donald Trump, a Republican, made their closing arguments in competing rallies.

Democrats currently control the White House and - by razor-thin margins - both chambers of Congress. The party in power typically sheds an average of two dozen or so seats in the midterms, which fall midway through a president's four years in office. While Mr Biden himself is not up for re-election on Tuesday, midterms are often seen as a referendum on a president's leadership.

Despite delivering on promises to lower prescription drug prices, expand clean energy and revamp US infrastructure, Mr Biden has seen his popularity suffer following the worst inflation in four decades, record illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border, and voter concerns about crime.

Guest: Tapiwa Samanga, Chief Executive Officer of The Production Technologies Association of South Africa

Since the early 1990s, South Africa has lost more than 80% of its capacity to support its own manufacturing sectors. One of the main reasons for this has been due to the neglect and decline of the local tooling sector, and this has had an exponentially negative impact on the manufacturing economy, which has led to de-industrialisation. Tooling is a multi-sector requirement, primarily in the automotive, steel, and aerospace fields. This loss of capacity is directly linked to international trade and the outsourcing of tooling to the rapidly developing and highly competitive Chinese tooling industry. We speak to the The Production Technologies Association of South Africa (PtSA), which represents the Tool, Die, Mould and Special Machining Industry, to discuss more the decline in capacity in the industry, and the loss of competitiveness leading to the loss of ability to support the manufacturing sector and the economy.

Guest:Jacob Maroga

 Reshika Ramasar