BrandSouthAfrica.com

A high-level South African business delegation will visit India next week to expand trade relations between the two countries and explore investment opportunities.

The delegation will be led by Dr Essop Pahad, Minister in the Office of the Presidency. It will also include senior leaders of industry, trade and commerce as well as representatives from provincial development agencies.

If you’re celebrating your birthday at Mike’s Kitchen, don’t expect anyone to sing “Happy Birthday”. At this restaurant chain you will be congratulated by a song which is sung to the tune of Shosholoza.

This is part of the re-branding of Mike’s Kitchen, one which it will celebrate on September 28, together with the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC), custodians of Brand South Africa.

Paul Mackenzie has been appointed chief operations officer of the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC), responsible for managing its day-to-day operations. The COO is a new position, created to add management capacity to the IMC as it continues to grow and expand its staffing numbers, projects and influence. The role of the COO includes planning; financial oversight and compliance; HR development; and operational management.

Ninety-six percent of South Africans are now proud of their country, with white South Africans closing the patriotism gap with their black compatriots, according to the latest South African edition of the World Values Survey.

While 83% of whites described themselves as proud to be South African in the previous survey, released five years ago, that figure had now risen to 95%, the survey's authors told journalists in Pretoria on Monday.

Nation brands are difficult to get right. When it comes to Africa, the branding of the continent is particularly one-sided. It is easy to mistake one of the world's most disparate and compelling continents as an impoverished, war-riddled charity case that is best to avoid.