I am Proudly South African (2001)

How do you get people to buy South African goods when they have this perception that something made elsewhere is so much better? This was the question behind the Nelson Mandela initiated Proudly South African campaign. And I was asked to get this off the ground. It wasn't as easy as you would expect.

Nelson Mandela got government, business, civil society and trade unions together back in 1998 to get them to agree to a joint effort to create jobs in South Africa. His Presidential Job Summit was a breakthrough. Getting everyone on the same page was key to moving us forward. It didn't come up with too many tangible things, but just getting everyone to share thoughts was a big step in the right direction. And they agreed to many things that should be at the forefront of this new partnership. One of the things they agreed to was a short little paragraph about initiating a Buy South African campaign. Doesn't sound like much does it? Should be easy to get off the ground right? But nothing happened until 2000.

The problem was that business hated it, government was indifferent and the trade unions were split. But I worked for one of the key supporters of this idea - Ebrahim Patel. Ebrahim was a genius. A hard man and difficult to please, but a genius. And I loved working with this guy no matter how difficult it was. But I'll leave him for another day.

Ebrahim was the reason why I joined COSATU and because of him I was made Convener of the Trade and Industry Chamber at NEDLAC. NEDLAC was where government, labour, civil society and business negotiated almost everything that had something to do with the economy and social development before it goes to parliament. And the Trade and Industry Chamber negotiated and developed anything from trade deals to competition policy. You name it we negotiated it and did it. NEDLAC is light years ahead of anything I have seen in any democracy in the world. Making people actually part of government policy decisions processes. Imagine that. By the people and for the people.

So it was only logical that this Buy South African idea eventually landed up in our laps. And it was my job to make this argument. Well, at least according to Ebrahim. So I made the arguments and threatened and threw my toys until they agreed. Not because they wanted this, but because they thought it would be best to humor me instead of facing a possible mass action (read protest) against them. But they had something up their sleeve as well.

They were pretty sure that this thing will never get off the ground. There were just too many people against it. And the new President, Thabo Mbeki, wasn't that eager for it either. It would be a legacy of Nelson Mandela and he was trying to get away from under the shadow of this great man. So they decided to set up a task team that would get this campaign off the ground. Knowing that it would never happen - not if they had anything to do with it. And who better to lead this task team then me. Yep, I pushed so hard that they thought the best way to get back at me is to set me up for failure. So I was the 'lucky' one who got selected to lead this campaign. Thanks Ebrahim.

They gave me total freedom to include anyone in the team that I wanted. They were sure that I would fill it up with unionist who would be supportive of the idea. But no. That wouldn't work. I needed those who were against the idea even closer than those who loved it. Keep your friends close and enemies even closer. So I selected key people from government and business who were totally apposed to the idea. I had to convince them if we wanted any chance of success.

They also gave me an almost unlimited budget to work with. And like anyone with too much money I hired a few consultants. Rupert Barnard and Kaiser in Cape Town were perfect. They didn't give a damn who liked it or not. Their aim was to make it work. And get paid a bucket load if they could pull it off. But the opposition pulled out their first trump card at our first meeting - WTO requirements.

As a member of the WTO, South Africa agreed that the government will not do anything that supports South African companies above foreign companies. All should be treated equally. But we needed the support of government because they had the money. And they could influence business. And we needed business to implement it if we wanted it to be viable.

So we came to standstill almost immediately. We couldn't move until we knew whether it would be allowed under WTO rules. We argued this way and that way. We did research and more research. And still we couldn't come to an agreement. Four months went past and we still didn't get any closer to an answer. And then it hit me. I picked up the phone, called the WTO and asked them if we could do this campaign under WTO rules. They said it would be fine and even put it writing for me. Needless to say, but the other guys were less impressed with my tactics. Or rather the answer that I got. But they had to go ahead with it - they were part of the team. Now we had government on our side - and their money as well. One down, one to go.

We blew money left right and centre to convince everyone that this is a good idea. We benchmarked similar campaigns in Australia, US, Canada and even Indonesia. Our problem was that none of the other countries included environmental and social standards to their campaigns. We wanted the products to not only be of good quality and be made in South Africa, but we also wanted it to be done in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Yes, we were way ahead of everyone else at the time. So we just made it up as we went along.

But consumers would be key to this all. They had to believe in the campaign and buy the products in the end. So we blew some more money on consumer studies to see what would drive consumers to support this campaign. And although we didn't know it at the time, this would be a breakthrough for the campaign. But not in a way we would have expected.

Those in business opposed to the idea found another obstacle they could throw our way. They couldn't agree on a name. Business wanted it to be called Made in South Africa. But the unions wanted it to be called Buy South African - the original name they agreed to in 1998. But business was adamant. They would not go for the Buy South African name as it was to prescriptive and they wanted it to say more about the product - that it was Made in South Africa. And the unions refused to budge. Stuck again.

We used this in our favor for a little while. Getting other key things passed like the budget, management structure and marketing plan. But we knew there would be no campaign if we couldn't get them to agree on the name. And time was running out.

And we struggled. Again going this way and that way. Trying to convince each side that they should just go with the other name. But no one was willing to budge. Then one night I was reading through some consumer research when it hit me. What were the number one reason people would support this campaign? Easy. Over 80% of people said they would do it because they were proud to be South Africans. We had a name - Proudly South African. They couldn't fight it. They would not be very proudly South African if they did. They caved in and we had a name. Business was on board.

The rest was easy. We removed one obstacle after the other. And more and more people came on board. And the name was a killer. A few more twists and turns and we had everyone on board. We were ready to rock and roll.

That was the most difficult time for me. We had to employ people to run this. My job was only to get it to the launch stage. It took 18 months of my life. It consumed everything. I had to out maneuver opponents and overcome obstacles every day. It drove me crazy, but I loved it. It was time to let go. My little baby has grown up and was ready to leave home. I was proud. I was Proudly South African.