Category Archives: South Africa

Video Interview with Monkeyland and Birds of Eden at Indaba 2012

Monkeyland and Birds of Eden South Africa The very passionate and endearing Lara Mostert chats to us about Monkeyland – the worlds first free roaming multi-specie primate sanctuary. Lara also invites her neighbour Henko Kleingeld from the Elephant Sanctuary to join her and they perform a fantastic rendition of a monkey mating call – not to be missed! Everyone in the vicinity, including restaurant staff, stopped to see what was happening!

Lara also let’s us on a little secret … that King Julian, the Ringtail lemur in the movie Madagascar, cannot be king because in Madagascar all female Lemurs are boss!

View the video below:

Monkeyland is based near Plettenberg Bay along the Garden Route, South Africa. It is hugely popular, receiving up to 1000 visitors a day at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden in the peak season.

Lara’s knowledge and passion are infectious – there is no stopping her once you get her talking about monkeys! CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO and take a look here for further information about Monkeyland, Birds of Eden and Elephant Sanctuary

… and please share the amazing work they are doing!

Increasing Trade between South Africa and the UK

Robin from Mamba Media attends the South Africa Trade Event in London, UK.

Photograph courtesy of Keith Hern Photography www.keithhern.com

The drive up through Surrey was a bit stickier than it should have been at 6.30 am, but once I got onto the A3 it was all go. After a short wiggle through Wimbledon Village, I arrived on the south eastern side of the common and Cannizaro House Hotel. What a gem! A great big imposing, 300 year old building overlooking the park.

The speedy registration was the only barrier to a cup of Joe and a bacon and egg roll. Two of those did the job! I always secretly find it kind of amusing that all the delegates are trying to shake hands, drink coffee, read the welcome pack, eat and network all at the same time, at 8am. After all that we headed off to the conference room to begin the day.

Ian Smith kicked things off with Chris Trott being beamed in from Cape Town – what a wonderful tool Skype is. Ian and Chris both highlighted the expanding trade relations between the UK and South Africa and that there were plenty of opportunities out there for intrepid entrepreneurs.

This was further highlighted by Avi Lasarow of Trimega Laboratories. He has a very successful company with offices in Manchester, Cape Town and Germany. Some of his success can be accredited to his relationship with UKTI and the advice and support that the organization offers to people who want to do business between South Africa and the United Kingdom. His direct advice was:

Leverage the South Africa media
Spend time on your company setup and legal agreements
Protect your intellectual property
Invest in some PR
Do a big product launch
Have a vision and keep it alive by moving forward every day

Yusuf Timol, from the South African High Commission had a tough job as the purveyor of good news and spent some time going through the cold hard facts and figures related to the South African economy and its trade with the United Kingdom. South Africa’s inclusion in the BRICS group should give investors a much needed boost in morale, as should the general state of South Africa economy and its excellent and well regulated financial sector.

Companies wanting to do business in South Africa should also figure the SADC region into their sales and marketing plans. This 13 member group has 200 million consumers. By 2015 there will be a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) that will stretch from Libya to South Africa and have 600 million consumers. This represents huge potential and there will be exciting opportunities in:

Creative Industries
Global sporting events
Leisure
Environment
Education
Employment
Transport
Airports
Security

At question and answer time Yusuf had to deal with a difficult question on security of visitors. He looked a little tired when he answered as I am sure he has had to respond to this same questions many times before. He said that yes, South Africa does have crime issues, but most of those crimes are in areas of social and economic depravity and would not normally affect the normal visitor. He also mentioned the fact that “bad news sells”. This is spot on, as it is easier for foreign papers to report on the bad rather than the good. What are they doing to counteract the bad press? They seem fairly busy on the social media scene and are currently running an ad campaign to “Leave the Ordinary Behind” so are these issues being addressed enough?

After the half time oranges, we went into a presentation from Robert Walker. He went on to highlight two companies that have done very well in the world of sports. One in broadcasting and one in branding and mascots. What did come out during his session was the need for better digital exposure – websites in particular. He said that in his experience most companies needed to up their game plan with regards their websites, which I agree.

After the formal part of the morning there was a sports-oriented ending, with the arrival of the Olympic Torch (a replica). The design is fascinating. Three-sided, multi-holed and very light. The 8,000 holes represent each of the people that will carry it on the relay … and the triangular-shape was inspired by a series of ‘threes’ that are found in the history of the Olympic Games and the vision for the Olympic Movement:

The three Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship;
The three words that make the Olympic motto – faster, higher, stronger;
The fact that the UK has hosted the Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and will host them for the third time in 2012; and
The vision for the London 2012 Olympic Games to combine three bodies of work – sport, education and culture.

Hey, we even got to hold the torch, just sorry for the double chin. Anyway we plan to light up 2012, go for gold, make the nation proud …..

About the Author: Robin Cormack is the Co-founder and Director of Mamba Media – a Creative Agency that specialises in Websites, Design and Digital Marketing for the Travel and Tourism Industry.

Rights for Rhino – Musina to Cape Town

l-r, Chewy, Dr. Ian Player and Spoon

Paul (known as Chewy) and Sboniso (known as Spoon) will hit the road tomorrow in Musina and start the long three month walk south, all the way to Cape Town. Thats 2000kms! Before you ask, no, they are not loony, but they are passionate about conservation and have decided that this is their way of highlighting the plight of Rhino in Africa.

Now a walk is just a walk, but these guys plan to stop, meet, talk to and educate people along the way. They are hoping to spread their message through all the communities that they come into contact with, from school kids to old folks, who may remember when the Rhino was under less threat. If you are along the route that Chewy and Spoon are walking, take some time out of your day to stop and have a chat with them.

The pre-eminent conservationist, Dr Ian Player met with Chewy and Spoon to lend his support to this venture and to offer some of his own wisdom, ‘We all share this earth and evolved together. We all have an equal right to a place under the sun and all wild creatures are man’s brothers and sisters’. The message is that we all have to get involved in the preservation of our earth and its beings. If we don’t care then it will be lost.

Both Chewy and Spoon have their roots in KwaZulu-Natal. Chewy grew up in Pietermaritzburg, attended Maritzburg College and was a game ranger for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife from 1999 to 2007. He still lives in Umfolozi and is still passionate about conservation in the area and its people. Chewy is so rooted in this community that he even sounds like a Zulu when he speaks Zulu. Spoon also grew up in Pietermaritzburg and works for Protrack anti-poaching. He is a regular contributer of articles on anti-poaching and conservation in KwaZulu-Natal.

These two conservationists were meant to meet and they were meant to raise awareness for Rhino. We are not sure if they were meant to walk from Musina to Cape Town (2000kms) but they choose to. We all make choices, some difficult and some easy. The easy choice for us is to support this cause and to continue to support conservation in and around our communities.

There is loads more info on their website – www.rightsforrhinos.co.za

Make a donation: http://rightsforrhinos.co.za/donations/

Spread the word!