RSA Group Reflections August 2024
Dear friends
Last weekend’s rugby game between the Bokke and New Zealand was filled with atmosphere and ‘gees’, at home and abroad.
The excitement extended as far as Joburg’s local authorities. In the run-up to the big match, our newspapers were filled with articles describing how the Ellis Park district had been cleaned up to a sparkling state. The Passenger Rail Agency of SA and Gautrain also worked together to ensure efficient travel to and from the game, allowing fans to easily board trains from Park Station to Ellis Park and not bother about driving themselves, or using e-cab services.
The Joburg CBD has struggled against infrastructure and civil service decay for decades, and in recent years has fallen into an especially run-down state. Within the context of this steady degradation, it feels remarkable that the city of Joburg managed to deliver such a big facelift in such a short period of time. And yet the mission was accomplished with speed and, seemingly, much enjoyment from all involved.
All of which made me think a lot about the maintenance and infrastructure challenges the South African fresh produce industry has been facing for many, many years. We have been talking about these issues for so long and so little progress has been made that at times it seems like they are fundamentally insurmountable – or, at the very least, will take several years to resolve.
But Joburg’s recent rugby experience throws this into question. With the right kind of attitude and motivation, it now seems clear that huge strides can be taken pretty much overnight.
How then do we create the positive national attitude required to finally resolve the market maintenance and management issues blighting our industry? In theory, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Unlike rugby (which is, at the end of the day, only a sport – albeit a very important one in this country), fresh produce forms the backbone of national food security. Our people quite literally rely on fresh produce for their physical health and wellbeing. Creating the motivation to support and strengthen this backbone should be a matter of obvious logic for all South Africans, and especially for our local and national government leaders.
Or, put another way: if we want to do it for rugby, why on earth don’t we want to do it for fresh produce?
Our government leaders obviously carry primary responsibility for addressing this question. But our industry also has an important role to play. After last weekend’s game, I wonder if there might not be important lessons to be taken from South African rugby’s admirable ability to motivate, and inspire.
In addition to great performances on the field, the Springboks have been incredibly strong with their storytelling about why and how they go about their business. The team regularly tells powerful, emotive stories about the players’ lives beyond the game, and has been hugely successful in bringing audiences into the change room to see what motivates the players; both as individuals, and as a group of very diverse South Africans.
I believe South African fresh produce has many very similar positive stories, and that our industry could learn a lot from South African rugby when it comes to how to tell them to great effect. Yes, we need to beat the drum about the importance of fresh produce to South African society, but we need to beat it in the right kind of way, so that ordinary South Africans can understand, and relate to, exactly how important and inspiring what our people do really is.
Maybe if we up our storytelling game we might start to enjoy at least some of the maintenance and infrastructure attention from our leaders that our sports stars have managed to generate. Positive outcomes can’t be guaranteed, but it’s surely worth a try!
Best wishes
Jaco Oosthuizen