A year ago, at the GIBS Foresight 2011 Forum, the sentiment was profoundly positive. Still buoyed from a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africans were upbeat about 2011; about the possibilities for emerging markets and the opportunities on offer as global growth and influence swung increasingly eastwards. A year on and the Foresight 2012 debate was a more sombre, grown up affair.
Some issues still remain firmly on the table from a year ago with, seemingly, no resolution in sight: the state of education, poverty, inequality, HIV/Aids, lack of support for entrepreneurs, unemployment and, of course, corruption. Touching on all these issues, with a particular focus on education, GIBS founding director Prof Nick Binedell steered an at times passionate and controversial panel discussion between Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala; Basic Education Director General Bobby Soobrayan; Primedia’s Head of News Yusuf Abramjee; South African Breweries’ Executive Director: Development and Decision Support, Yolanda Cuba; GIBS faculty and Cannon Asset Managers’ Prof Adrian Saville and Dr Martyn Davies, GIBS faculty and CEO of Frontier Advisory. Overshadowing the discussion was the global uncertainty over the outlook for developed economies such as those in Europe and the US and, at home, the rallying cry against the ANC government’s controversial Protection of Information Bill.