Billionaire Patrice Motsepe cancels Malawi tour over anti-Ansah demos
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe has cancelled his tour of Malawi due to a shaky political environment, it has been learnt.
Motsepe, who is worth US$2.2 billion as of May this year and is the first black man to appear in the world’s Forbes list of rich people, was expected to speak at this year’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Malawi Chapter annual lake conference in Mangochi next month.
CIM President Golden Banda confirmed in Blantyre on Monday that Motsepe has rescheduled his appearance at the conference to next year.
“Patrice Motsepe will not be coming to speak at the annual lake conference for CIM because of the political environment. He will however attend next year’s conference,” said Banda when he was receiving a cheque worth K1.5 million from National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc for this year’s lake conference.
Motsepe’s attendance to the conference was going to raise CIM Malawi Chapter profile as the revered businessman who made his billions from mining is a respected entrepreneur in the world.
But Banda said they have managed to get another high profile individual to speak at the conference in the name of Thebe Ikalafeng, also from South Africa.
“Thebe Ikalafeng is arguably the foremost global African branding authority. In a distinguished corporate career which started at Colgate Palmolive in New York and concluded as chief marketing officer for NIKE for Africa, he won over 75 awards in branding and marketing communication globally,” said Banda of the Anchor Speaker at the lake conference.
Banda also said Ikalafeng founded Brand Africa, an inter-generational movement to create a positive image of Africa, celebrate its diversity and drive its competitiveness.
“As you are aware we also championing the ‘Brand Malawi’ project to promote our tourism using Malawi as a brand and we are going to benefit more from Ikalafeng ideas on this subject,” said Banda.
The season 8 of the CIM lake conference will be held at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi from 12 to 15 September 2019 and the theme for the conference is ‘Global Trade and Digital Marketing’.
