Thula Sindi Wins Maiden SA Tourism Designer Of The Year

  South Africa budding Haute couture designer, Thula Sindi, has been awarded the first ever title of SA Tourism designer of the year at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa.

"To say I'm shocked would be an understatement. I've never won anything in my life. I was sitting there chatting away and suddenly I was called to come up on stage. It's such a huge honour for me to be recognised for a change. It shows people appreciate my craft,” he says.

According to SA Tourism's chief marketing officer Roshene Singh, Sindi was chosen for his "renowned creativity, distinctive South African style and his inclination to manufacture and source fabrics locally."

Sindi showcased his Spring/Summer collection  to a full audience of media, fashion icons, buyers, stakeholders and fashion enthusiasts, who were in awe.

Sindi who said he once worked as head designer for a textile company where he learnt how to make prints and fabrics; revisited that passion for prints while passing it off in a modern and wearable style. He presented an elegant line making a contemporary African statement with bold prints. Sindi had African prints on materials such as embroidered cotton and embossed satin, and made use of sequins.

"I'm all about simplicity. I chose various prints representing various African countries, but wanted to give it a contemporary feel.They're the kind of clothes you choose to wear on Tuesday or Wednesday; they're not reserved for cultural days. I didn't want that ethnic feel attached to it, so I styled it in a digestible way."

Sindi says he strives to make his business sustainable, making trendy but affordable clothes and being able to employ people and improve their skills.

Apart from winning the prestigious title, Sindi wins a trip to one of SA Tourism's key global markets, where he will promote his work assisted by SA Tourism. His SindiThe Summer collection will be available online at 36boutiques.com as well as Burgundy Fly stores.

African Fashion International (AFI) GM Grant Blackbeard says: "One of our main functions at AFI is to produce designers who are not only creative, but also able to develop and sustain viable businesses.

"Thula Sindi has worked extremely hard in the last couple of years to establish his brand, find his niche and distinguish himself in the retail and commercial markets, while still being able to create once-off haute couture and bespoke pieces." 

Sindi’s fame continues to grow as international tennis stars, Serena nad Venus Williams during in their two days visit to south Africa were impressed with his designs while shopping.

Serena was quoted as saying: “I’ve had so much fun on this trip. I’ve been to South Africa before, but every time I come back it gets better and better. I loved the Thula Sindi dress I bought. The style is gorgeous” while Venus said: “I’ve enjoyed my first trip to South Africa and meeting and seeing the work of some great South African designers like Thula Sindi.

“With the Williams’ sisters endorsement, my brand is going where the market is,” Sindi said.

“SA Tourism has planned some exciting things for me but chief among them is I am going to showcase in New York later this year and I will also be in Europe.”

Shareholders Sue Hersey For Unlawful Child Labor On Cocoa Supply In Africa

A day after Halloween – when candy sales and chocolate consumption are at their highest levels, particularly among children; a public pension fund - Louisiana Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System (LAMPERS) , has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania-based chocolate making company, Hershey, for using unlawful child and forced labor in the West African countries of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The court filing marks the beginning of what could be a major shareholder challenge to the business practices of Hershey, the largest chocolate producer in North America.

The public pension fund system are demanding court order to inspect  Hersey’s book and records to ascertain if the candy-maker knew its suppliers in Ghana and Ivory Coast used child labor.

LAMPERS maintains that the company's board has long known about the use of "tainted cocoa," yet has persisted in using ingredients from suppliers in West Africa, where illegal child labor practices are rampant, including the use of children under 10 to harvest cocoa in the field. Shareholders contend that the board has consistently permitted Hershey to engage in unlawful acts in violation of its certificate of incorporation under Delaware law, and consequently has breached its fiduciary duties.

 “There are substantial grounds to believe, therefore, that Hershey’s chocolate empire is built on a foundation of West African child labor,” the pension fund said in the complaint.

 LAMPERS is represented by noted shareholder and corporate governance law firm Grant & Eisenhofer, who filed the law suit in Delaware Chancery Court, where the Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company is incorporated. The case is Louisiana Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System v The Hershey Co, Delaware Court of Chancery, No. 7996.

If the court forces Hershey to turn over the documents, the pension fund could look for evidence to bring a lawsuit against the company and its directors for not properly overseeing the business and they could be held liable for damage caused to the company's reputation.

Hershey, in October, promisedto start using certified cocoa — which is produced according to certain social, economic and environmental standards – for all of its chocolate products by 2020. 

A report submitted by Tulane University under contract to the U.S. Department of Labour identified that some 1.8 million children, ages 5 to 17, work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast and Ghana. The study also found evidence of child-trafficking, forced labor and other violations of internationally accepted labor practices.

"That one of the world's leading confectioners - whose primary market is children - could exploit child laborers to meet its bottom line is an outrage. Rather than open its records to scrutiny, Hershey over the past decade has thrown up multiple roadblocks to reasonable examination of its conduct regarding serious questions about illegal child slave labor and trafficking in its supply chain," said Grant & Eisenhofer co-managing director Jay Eisenhofer, who is counsel to LAMPERS.

"Speaking as a father whose children just returned from trick-or-treating with a cornucopia of candy, much of it made by Hershey, it's a shock to the conscience that Hershey would be less than forthcoming about the use of illegal child labor in bringing its products to market. Shareholders believe such conduct is not what Milton Hershey and his wife, who were well-known for philanthropy for disadvantaged children, would envision for the company," Eisenhofer added.

Activists have long pushed companies to fight child labor in the cocoa industry. The most common tasks carried out by children on cocoa farms are filling plastic bags for nurseries, breaking up pods and transporting plants, according to the Fair Labor Association.

Under local law, carrying heavy loads is one of the worst forms of child labor, and the use of machetes and knives to break pods is a hazardous task, the FLA said. According to 2008 Ivory Coast 2008 government survey, about 89 percent of Ivory Coast children were involved in growing cocoa.

However, in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg, Hershey said it “has been supporting cocoa-growing communities for more than 50 years. We have been involved in on-the-ground programs, working with public and private partners, to help eliminate inappropriate labor practices in cocoa communities.”

Its spokeswoman, Leigh Horner, also said Hershey “is engaged with the U.S. Department of Labor and the United Nations’ International Labor Organization in programs to address these labor issues.”

The 118-year-old maker of Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat and Almond Joy, sells chocolate in some 70 countries worldwide with over $6.8 billion in net sales in the past fiscal year.

Posted from Ventures- Africa 

WCO Seize Illicit Drugs in 16 African countries

In an operation carried out by customs inspectors in 16 ports from July 11 to 20,  called “Vice Grips 2”, 80 million doses of contraband drugs worth $ 40million have been seized in sixteen African countries by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) with the biggest hauls made in Angola, Cameroon, Ghana and Togo.

The illegal doses impounded by customs officers who searched containers in the 16 countries’ ports include anti-malarial and anti-parasitic drugs, antibiotics, cough syrups, contraceptive pills and infertility treatments.

The operation was put together by WCO in partnership with the Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicines (IRACM). Sixteen African nations joined the search team. The countries include Ghana, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo.

 “The operation was conducted simultaneously at 16 major seaports on the East and West coasts of Africa from July 11 to 20, 2012, leading to the seizure of more than 100 million counterfeit products of all categories. Of a total number of 110 maritime containers inspected by teams of Customs officials, 84 were found to contain counterfeit or illicit products, with the biggest shipments being discovered in Angola, Togo, Cameroon and Ghana,” WCO said.

"It is the biggest operation of its kind," Christophe Zimmermann, in charge of anti-counterfeit operations at the WCO, said at a press conference in Paris.

Illegal medications are a growing problem in Africa, as they may be toxic or fail to have a sufficient dose of active ingredient to combat a disease, Zimmermann and others said.

It was reported that most of the illicit drugs came from East and South Asia -- particularly China -- and the Middle East, notably Dubai.

Inspectors helped by a French anti-counterfeit agency searched 110 shipping containers, 84 of which were found to have illegal or fake medications.

Custom Inspectors also found 33 million doses of fake medications, along with pornographic DVDs, which had been stashed deep inside a batch of loudspeakers that were being exported to Angola. None of the "drugs" had any active ingredient.

In Togo, a smuggled batch of expectorant cough syrup, supposed to be kept at a cool, stable temperature of -2 to +4 degrees Celsius (28-39 degrees Fahrenheit), was literally cooking in a container where the temperature was more than 50 C (122 F).

"Africa is now being used as a rubbish tip, and this directly affects consumer health and safety," Zimmermann said.

"We are dealing with structured organisations that specialise in international fraud, which exploit globalisation in operations that span continents and countries, using different forms of transport."

Meanwhile, WCO secretary general, Kunio Mikuriya said additional operations would be staged in Africa over the next six months to maintain momentum on the drug fakers.

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Banked Population Increase in South Africa

 

South Africa’s banked population has grown by 1.3 million in 2012 from the previous year, a survey conducted by the FinMark Trust’s FinScope South Africa survey shows.

The survey which was launched on Tuesday in Johannesburg indicated that, of the 33.7 million above 16 years population(StatsSA 2011 mid-year population estimate); 22.5 million of them are banked adults- amounting to a 67 percent increase. This means there are now almost 10 million more adults in the banking system than in 2004 when only 13 million adults (46 percent) of the population were banked.

The number of social grants holders also increased by 60 percent from 5 million in 2010 to 7.4 million in the subsequent year while 7 percent or 2.4 million of the adult population in South Africa are social grant holders.

While indicating that there is still room for more growth, the survey shows that more women (69 percent) than men (64 percent) are now banked.

Although the big-four banks in SA are all trying to migrate their clients to cheaper digital banking channels, the study shows that Nine out of ten (88 percent) banked adults claim to withdraw money from an ATM at least once a month while 25percent claim to get cash at a store till using a bank card.

Only 13 percent claim to use cellphone banking - which is the one digital avenue that reaches  most South Africans across all of the income categories. The big challenge is to get people‚ including banked people‚ to meaningfully engage financially by transacting frequently rather than withdrawing all their money at once, the survey says.

A third (34 percent) of the banked‚ or 7.3 million people‚ agree with the statement “as soon as money is deposited into your account‚ you take all of it out”. There are 9.8 million people in South Africa who have basic transactional bank accounts and no other kind of formal financial product.

Membership of informal savings or investment groups and stokvels has also grown from 7 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2012.

The survey reveals that 48 percent of South African adults are worried that they won’t have enough money for old age or retirement while 83 percent do not have any formal retirement product. Only 25 percent of adults claim to have enough money to save after covering all their spending needs.

Meanwhile, the survey indicated that personal life insurance has increased from 11 percent in 2004 to 13 percent with 3 percent of South African adults claiming to be covered by life insurance in someone else’s name.

In spite of this, the survey revealed that despite coming from a low base‚ there has been impressive growth since 2004 in the penetration of pension funds (9 percent to 12 percent)‚ provident funds (6 percent to 10 percent) and retirement annuities (6 percent to 9 percent).

The factor to the key development of the improved bank population in 2012 was credited to  the roll-out of the new South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) MasterCard.

"Looking forward‚ if we are to make financial markets work for the poor‚ we should expect a greater role for relevant touchpoints such as stokvels‚ burial societies‚ churches‚ post office branches and retail channels to reach people better. The successful roll-out of such a strategy will require education of those people in the frontline – retail managers and cashiers‚ custodians and members of informal groups – in order to extend appropriate products and mechanisms to end-consumers,” FinMark says.

"As we enter the second decade of FinScope studies‚ the challenge will be to deepen financial engagement further in order to better meet the full set of needs of our people‚" FinMark adds.

Fin Mark however posited that financial services and credit providers will need innovation to deepen inclusion and involvement of the newly banked.

According to FinMark Trust CEO Prega Ramsamy, increased access to financial services required that multiple stakeholders target areas that most needed them.

"We need to continue innovating. The number of banked adults jumped from 46% of adults in 2004 to 63% in 2011," Ramsamy said.

Nevertheless, Cas Coovadia, FinMark Trust chairman and MD of the Banking Association of South Africa, said the banking sector in South Africa ranked among the best in terms of inclusion of citizens. He said South Africa had the second most stable banking sector in the world, behind Canada.

"We’re obviously doing something right in terms of financing. We have a well regulated banking sector and we now need to use our edge.”

He said a section of the population "will never have a bank account" but the financial services sector needed to continue being innovative in finding ways to service South Africans.

 Posted from Ventures Africa