Bloemfontein Courant continues its birthday celebrations by supporting and encouraging local business. Sponsored by Standard Bank, the newspaper will be hosting its Business Breakfast on 8 August at Memories 4 Ever. The guest speaker will be Lincoln Mali, Head: Group Card and Payments at Standard Bank.
Mali holds a BA; an LLB from Rhodes University; an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK and Advanced Management Programme from Harvard Business School in the US. He joined the Banking Council SA in 1997 as a General Manager responsible for Public Policy, SME Development and Market Conduct Regulation. And in 2001 he joined Standard bank as a Senior Manager at Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB); in the same year he was appointed Regional Director: Central Africa, in charge of Standard Bank Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. He is also a prominent former student activist who has held numerous leadership roles.
“For us it’s about bringing together businesses in Bloemfontein, listening to a speaker who speaks on leadership and creating an opportunity to network with colleagues and stakeholders,” said Christel Basson, Mahareng General Manager.
She added that the hashtag for Bloemfontein Courant’s birthday is #LoveLocal. “Because we believe in the local economy of the greater Free State and Northern Cape and we really want to enhance that by giving back to the community, I think that a business breakfast like this gives the best opportunity to actually give back to our community, to strengthen and motivate them. To encourage local businesses and our team to work hard while understanding what is necessary for running a great business in Bloemfontein,” added Basson.
Brendan Jacobs, Banking Head (Free State/Northern Cape) at Standard Bank Group said that they share a lot of values with Bloemfontein Courant regarding the Bloemfontein community. “And as such the partnership was a logical one to reach local and small businesses, to share insights about leadership and to create an opportunity for networking,” he said.
“At Standard bank we have decentralised a lot of our decision making and our management structures to be more locally based, to be closer to our customers, so for us and for me specifically being responsible for the Bloemfontein area, it’s very important to be present and engaging with those businesses, so that jointly we can find solution to better businesses and to ultimately better the Bloemfontein environment because none of us live in isolation, we are mutually dependent on each other, so that’s why local is very important to us,” added Jacobs.
Avid supporters of the #LoveLocal campaign are Oranje Toyota, who have donated R10 000 towards the event. Tickets cost R280, of which R100 will go towards CHOC. “Based on the fact that we gave out Albé Grobbelaar’s book last year, we decided to give every person attending the event a copy of 60 STORIES. There will also be more copies on sale. And once again, all the proceeds will go towards ChOC,” basson said.
To make a booking, please call 051-5050-900 and ask for Felecia or Petra. – Seithati Semenokane
seithati@bloemfonteincourant.co.za
