Samuel Mosikili, marketing director of South Africa’s utility, ESKOM, gave a straightforward accounting at the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce May 31 of his country’s reconstruction and development plan, saying that “we might just crib some of the things Georgia Power is doing” in his country’s efforts to win the Olympics for Cape Town in 2004.
South African officials, including several delegations from Cape Town, have been visiting Atlanta since last year to benefit from its experiences in preparing for the 1996 Games. (See Globalfax, Vol. 2, Issues, 40,48). Georgia Power through “Operation Legacy” seeks to parlay the Games into long-term economic development for the state and region.
Mr. Mosikili addressed the country’s political instability and crime as well as the decline in its mining industry with the fall in the price of gold — a development which he called “worrisome.” And he cited inadequate incentive schemes and tax difficulties for foreign investments.
On the other hand, he listed South Africa’s “inherent assets,” citing its geographic location as a “gateway to the Far East and India,” its communication and electric infrastructure and its emerging consumer market.
Although European investment currently exceeds that of the U.S. in South Africa, he said that with the abandonment of apartheid, he expects U.S. investment to surge in coming years.