'Inept' marketers ahead of 2010

Johannesburg - Questions are being asked about the "hasty" replacement of South Africa's International Marketing Council (IMC) Board of Trustees with an apparently inexperienced board in the run-up to the World Cup soccer tournament.

One of the board members who was asked by Collins Chabane, Minister in the Presidency, to resign about two weeks ago, said that replacement shortly ahead 2010 and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has to be detrimental.

"Most of the new board members do not have any international or marketing background. The corporate business sector is thus very poorly represented - this despite the fact that the IMC is now cooperating with the corporate business sector in the execution of its mandate."

Allegations are also being made that the new appointments were politically motivated and that the new board is no longer representative. Whereas several white members previously served on the board, only one of the 24-odd new members is white.

The former board members who have been supplanted include Unisa principal and Cope supporter Barney Pityana, and Wendy Luhabe, wife of Cope deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa. Luhabe, as chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, had chaired the IMC.

New members include Zizi Kodwa, a spokesperson for President Jacob Zuma, and Brenda Madumise, an advocate and former ANC MP.

One of the four reappointed board members, Zandile Zungu, is believed to be a major funder of the ANC.

Roelf Meyer, a former politician who has served on the IMC, reckons the allegations of politicking and incompetence are "wild and unfounded".

"The IMC has become an unwieldy group. A board overhaul has long been on the cards. The new government is just making its mark, which it is entitled to do." Meyer said that when the minister had announced that a new board would be formed, no-one had objected.

- Beeld