Following the local government elections, the big political questions are: What next for South Africa? What impact will politics continue to have on business and the economy?
Justice Malala, well-known political commentator and author of We Have Now Begun Our Descent, will cut through the political noise and focus on the issues that really matter for South Africa and its future when he addresses the Nelson Mandela Bay business community on Thursday, November 10.
Malala will be the guest speaker at a business breakfast hosted by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, in partnership with Investec Private Bank and General Motors South Africa, at Running Waters in Port Elizabeth.
His talk, After the Noise – A Political Overview, is expected to be a thought-provoking and not-to-be-missed opportunity for local businesses to experience this straight-talking commentator, newspaper columnist and best-selling author first-hand.
Malala undertakes to tease out the main strands in our politics and paint scenarios for the future in his presentation, by addressing the following questions: “Will President Zuma finish his term of office? What are the ratings agencies looking out for? Who will succeed Zuma – and what will their presidency look like? What about unemployment? Will politics continue to affect the rand – and how can we make things better?
President and Managing Director of GM Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber President, Ian Nicholls, said the timing for Justice Malala’s address to the Business Chamber members could not be any better.
“The country has gone through and still continues to face tremendous political and economic change. We know that Justice’s insights will help local businesses to better understand these changes and also be better placed to project the impact of this on the country going forward. We are proud to co-sponsor an event of this calibre and which we know will be of significant value to Chamber members,” Nicholls said.
Head of Banking for Investec Private Bank and Deputy President of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, Cumesh Moodliar, agrees that the timing of the event is spot-on.
“In the wake of political and economic uncertainties it almost seems apt to have the opportunity to hear Justice Malala’s opinion on our current political situation. His renowned column in the Financial Mail often provides insight into what South African businesses need to prepare for and bear in mind when entering into transactions. We look forward to hearing his view on the future political and economic landscape of our country.”
Justice Malala is a renowned political commentator, newspaper columnist and best-selling author. Malala writes regular weekly columns for The Times newspaper and the Financial Mail magazing and a monthly column for DestinyMan magazine. He is the resident political analyst for e.tv and eNews Channel Africa. He also presents a weekly political talk show (The Justice Factor on eNCA, Mondays at 21h30).
His latest book, We Have Now Begun Our Descent, reached number one on the South African best-seller lists in late 2015/2016 and was nominated as one of the top five non-fiction books of 2015 by the Jenny Crwya-Williams Book Club.
Between 2007 and September 2011, Malala was general manager of Avusa Media (now Times Media Group)’s stable of 44 magazines and, following that, general manager of the Sowetan and Sunday World newspapers.
Malala is a regualr contributor to the Guardian in London and his work has been published internationally in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Forbes, Institutional Investor, The Age, The Observer and the Toronto Globe and Mail. He has also contrinuted to BBC Online and Deutsche Welle.
He has given talks and rendered political advisory to international and local institutions such as JP Morgan, Liberty, Lehman Brothers, Old Mutual, Investec, Edcon, Nedbank and many others.
Malala is a judge on the country’s most prestigious investigative journalism award, the Taco Kuiper Awards for Investigative Journalism. He was awarded the Foreign Correspondents Association Award for Courageous Journalism in 1997. He was named by the New Yorker magazine as one of the eight most fascinating African of 2012 along with Rwandan President, Paul Kagame and Malawian President, Joyce Banda.
Malala was founding editor of ThisDay, the quality, upmarket South African daily newspaper which was launched on 7 October 2003 and folded a year later. Malala was an executive producer on Hard Copy I and II, a ground-breaking television series on SABC3. Hard Copy I won the Golden Horn Award for best television series.
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