Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Brand South Africa is focused on economic competitiveness. The strategy prioritizes investment attraction, trade promotion, and value addition, while leveraging the country’s industrial base, infrastructure, and role as a gateway to Africa.
- Nation branding combines hard economic assets with soft power. Sports, culture, innovation showcases, and patriotism programs are used to build domestic cohesion and international trust.
- Market diversification is a strategic priority. Efforts target key partners in the US and Europe, deepen intra-African trade, and expand into high-growth ASEAN markets to reduce dependency on a narrow set of economies.
- Investment promotion is coordinated across the government and the diaspora. Flagship initiatives include national investment project pipelines, presidential investment conferences, and engagement with Global South Africans as advocates abroad.
- Industrialization and infrastructure anchor the growth agenda. Priority sectors include manufacturing, energy, ICT, pharmaceuticals, automotive, tourism, and BPO, supported by logistics, ports, rail, and large-scale infrastructure upgrades.
- Regulatory reform and reputation management underpin confidence. Ease of doing business reforms, innovation-led value chains, and a strong human rights narrative are central to improving investor sentiment and global perception.
EF: Could you elaborate on the mission that you set for yourself when appointed as CEO of Brand South Africa?
NM: The priority is to sharpen nation branding around South Africa’s competitiveness, while sustaining domestic patriotism and bridging the two through proven programs like constitutional awareness and sports-led unity initiatives. The strategy shifted from mainly soft power to include trade and investment attraction, recognizing the longer lead times for landing investments and the need to align closely with the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition, with G20 preparations adding momentum.
Coming from a trade and investment background, with a solid foundation in the field, it became evident that Brand South Africa needed to strengthen its alignment with the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition and closely integrate with national economic growth objectives. While the organisation historically focused on soft power and image-building, the strategy has evolved to prioritise tangible economic outcomes, including trade, investment, and job creation. In this context, emphasis on the industrial sectors was added to support government initiatives aimed at stimulating economic growth, expanding high-value industries, and addressing poverty and unemployment, while positioning the creative economy as both a driver of national identity and a source of sustainable economic opportunity.
Beyond traditional partners, Brand South Africa has prioritised engagement across the African continent as a central pillar. Collaboration with institutions such as the African Union, Afreximbank, and the African Development Bank has focused on roundtables and platforms that showcase investment opportunities originating in South Africa. In parallel, attention has also turned to the East, where long‑standing partners include Japan, Korea, and China, with which South Africa has established strong trade relationships. Brand South Africa has recently run major programmes in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, focusing on the broader ASEAN region as an emerging cluster of strategic partners, and to expand South Africa’s global footprint.
Overall, the mission has been to connect nation branding with hard economic outcomes, align domestic pride with international competitiveness, and ensure that South Africa’s story is backed by specific, investable propositions.
EF: Could you elaborate on what the priorities are now?
NM: The priority is to position South Africa as a manufacturing hub for the continent, rather than primarily an exporter of raw materials. The country has the ability and capability to produce sophisticated products domestically, and underlying this ambition is a strong localisation agenda driven by the government. Localisation means that where South Africa trades with different markets, it increasingly does so with value‑added goods rather than unprocessed commodities.
The opportunity set spans several sectors, beginning with ICT, where South Africa is pushing to digitise as much as possible and rolling out broadband and connectivity across provinces. Gauteng (including Johannesburg), KwaZulu‑Natal, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape are being prioritised as key nodes, but the broader aim is to ensure connectivity and digital infrastructure across the country. This digital backbone supports both domestic growth and the attractiveness of South Africa as a base for technology‑enabled businesses serving regional and global markets.
Chemicals and pharmaceuticals represent another major opportunity area. The pharmaceutical industry falls under the broader chemicals sector, which has seen significant initiatives, including government‑supported investments in vaccine manufacturing capacity in the Eastern Cape in partnership with private sector players.
EF: Many countries are implementing long-term diversification plays. What 10-year decisions are you backing now, and why is $1 invested in South Africa better than anywhere else?
NM: Ease-of-doing-business reforms are material: turning red tape into efficient “green tape,” accelerating EIAs from 18–36 months to roughly six months, enabling some to complete in 2–3 months, and enabling less than five minutes of company registrations through one-stop shops. We are also building full value chains and clusters—mirroring lessons from automotive—to ensure critical mass around sectors like medical devices, with innovation funding across fintech, govtech, and advanced manufacturing tied to climate solutions like green hydrogen and solar hubs in Saldanha and the Northern Cape.
For South Africa, value chain implementation has become a top policy priority. Brand South Africa and economic agencies are working to ensure that investments in sectors such as automotive, pharmaceuticals, ICT, and advanced manufacturing are embedded in robust ecosystems.
The third major strategic decision involves a strong push on innovation. While it is important to learn from the successes of other countries, long‑term competitiveness depends on developing local solutions and technologies.
Beyond these structural reforms, South Africa offers investors several distinct advantages. The country has concluded multiple trade agreements, including those under the African Continental Free Trade Area and arrangements with partners such as the European Union and the United States, providing preferential market access and facilitation of goods movement. From a labour and skills perspective, South Africa has a deep pool of talent and the ability to design investment strategies that mirror the needs of European, American, and Asian markets, while benefiting from local cost structures.
EF: Any closing message to global investors as we look toward 2026?
NM: South Africa remains a compelling destination anchored by active reforms, diversified market engagement, and sector depth from manufacturing to advanced services and climate-aligned technologies, all supported by robust institutional collaboration. The pipeline of investable projects, documented with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, alongside streamlined approvals and supportive incentives, underpins risk-adjusted returns that compare favourably with peers over the next decade.
As we enter 2026, South Africa stands at a pivotal moment of opportunity. With a clear focus on economic diversification, strategic infrastructure development, and sectoral growth, from manufacturing and ICT to tourism, creative industries, and energy, our nation is building a competitive, resilient, and inclusive economy. Coupled with targeted ease-of-doing-business reforms, strong trade partnerships, and an engaged diaspora amplifying our global reputation, South Africa offers investors a gateway not only to the continent but to dynamic, high-growth markets worldwide. We invite global investors to partner with us in shaping this future, creating sustainable value, and contributing to a nation that is as rich in opportunity as it is in promise.
South Africa is actively pursuing the diversification of its export markets to reduce reliance on traditional trading partners and tap into regions with higher growth potential. While maintaining strong links with established markets such as the US, UK, EU, Japan, Korea, and China, the country is increasingly targeting emerging markets in ASEAN, the Middle East, and Africa to capture new trade and investment opportunities. Central to this strategy is South Africa’s agricultural sector, which produces a wide range of high-quality exportable products, including citrus, deciduous fruits, wine, sugar, maize, and livestock. By aligning market diversification with the strengths of its agricultural exports, South Africa aims to enhance value-added trade, expand global market share, and strengthen food security partnerships, while also supporting rural development and job creation.
