My Scribes!

“Eish bafo, I went to see Lesego today and he is in very bad shape – that dude is ill, seriously ill”! These are the words uttered by a friend on a telecom. It’s been a while since I’d last seen him, or Lesego for that matter. In fact, the time I had last seen my friend was at my sister’s funeral in June. June 18 to be exact! Lesego is a friend of a friend and we’d met on numerous occasions before – mostly at social gatherings in the Eastern parts of Joburg and I’ve also visited his place. My fond memory of him was when we went out for drinks. Interestingly, both of them (Lesego and my friend) had never been to a cocktail bar before and had no clue what cocktails were or what they tasted like but they were most fascinated by the drink’s names. Lesego’s favourite was “Sex On The Beach” and I suppose this was largely due to the “Sex” bit on the drink’s name – “this says a lot about his character”, I remember thinking that to myself! My friend continues t...

I will rise again! Laying on my bed, I can feel the pit my body dug onto it – no prize for guessing what it would say if it could talk. It has been my refuge and comfort zone for months now; it knows what I dare not share with the world. It has been there with me shielding me from the darkness of depression and cushioning the blows of life, it helped me pierce through stress and doubts whilst providing much needed comfort. To the world, I have it all under control. No one hears the painful screams concealed by my laughter. No one notices how broken I am beneath my poised bearing, the smile that stops my quivering lips’ attempt at a plea for help or the tales my face could tell about being drenched daily by the tears flooding my pillow… Letting go: I had it all once. I mean it was not the best that my dreams were made of but still I had it all. The snags came when I settled and had let it all become my comfort zone. I had procrastinated a lot of drea...

South Africa, October 13, 2017 Over a decade ago most marketing executives were excused for disregarding Public Relations and subscribing to the notion of “paying for advertising and praying for free publicity”. To them Public Relations was a function earmarked for crisis management and, occasionally, seen as ad hoc to their activities or part of CSI. Yet the backlash currently faced by KPMG over its “rogue unit” report is a stern reminder that this function is the one that sets the image of the company. Public Relations is, first and foremost, about the public and it is an opportunity for a business and a brand to reinforce its message in different mediums by keeping up with the trends whilst protecting and enhancing its reputation. This field is ever changing and it should be an integral part of the decision-making processes and align to long-term objectives, help prevent the current Public Relations crisis and reality faced by some companies globally. ...