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Internationally renowned Zulu historian David Rattray was shot and killed in his home in South Africa on January 26, 2007. Rattray was a friend of England’s Prince Charles. I am presuming this could have been through Polo, amongst other connections, the Rattray family being quite prominent participants in the sport. Besides the international connection, Rattray also counted local business people amongst his friends.This senseless killing so incensed the CEO of FNB (First National Bank) that he called a special meeting of his senior team and their ad agency FCB and prepared a campaign to call on ordinary people to write a letter to the president Thabo Mbeki and the government, to do something about crime in the country. A pre-printed letter with space for a signature, additional space for the writer to comment and a prepaid postage envelope, were to be distributed as inserts through the big newspapers, supported by TV and radio advertising. This campaign was killed on Friday, February 2, 2007 just before the campaign was to go out. In fact some of the newspapers and inserts were already on delivery vehicles when the campaign was cancelled. Amazingly enough, between the client FNB and the ad agency FCB, this huge campaign was conceptualised and executed within one week.The question of course is why was the campaign terminated at the point of execution. The sad answer is that the South African government gagged the bank. FNB fought hard to maintain independence, which is why it took the government five days, but in the end it was fairly easy to do. FNB provides banking for several government departments. Losing that business would have seriously affected FNB’s bottom line.President Mbeki is quoted as telling the SABC (read government spokes-organisation) that he doesn’t know why certain business leaders decided to act outside the structures such as the Presidential Big Business Working Group and Business Against Crime. Well, could it be that whatever government supported structures are in place to fight crime, are not doing the job?Raymond Ackerman, founder of Pick ‘n Pay, one of the leading supermarket chains in South Africa, lent his support to FNB. He also commented that he had initiated his own campaign. Asked why he was not working through existing channels as the business groups mentioned above, he said it was because he wanted something to get done. Ackerman also felt that FNB’s campaign was not so much about criticizing the government, but about empowering the man in the street to voice his or he concerns about the quality or lack of quality of life in South Africa. The fact that the government was so paranoid as not to allow this dialogue, should be of major concern to all South Africans. Crime is a huge problem in South Africa. The government should be accountable.
Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com
Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. She has recently started a blog and writes on issues that interest her from self-improvement to tech stuff for amateurs. Anja has had a varied and interesting career journey. She started as a high school teacher, changed professions to become an admin manager at her late husbands law firm because this allowed her the flexibility to look after her small children at the time. After many years she left this position to try her hand at an art gallery, moved across to public relations and finally found her niche in education again managing a computer training centre for many years. During this time she also involved herself in writing standards and qualifications in the new media field. 10 months ago she moved from South Africa to join her younger daughter. She now writes a blog and also looks after the business interests of her daughter who is a Flash and Accessibility expert. She has BA (Hons) MBA degrees and on rare occassions she feels like a frustrated wannabe academic. That passes quickly though. www.anjamerret.com
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