NHC to breathe new life into campaign

In a bid to revive Eastern Cape’s much-criticised Home of Legends publicity campaign, premier Phumulo Masualle has roped in the National Heritage Council (NHC) to develop a framework to re-brand the province.

The Daily Dispatch previously reported how the campaign, initially launched in 2012 by former premier Noxolo Kiviet, was met by a wave of criticism as it never achieved most of the provincial government’s goals.

The province erected billboards and adverts across the Eastern Cape inviting people to suggest names of individuals they believed were deserving to be named legends.

Some billboards erected had faces of former ANC leaders, but former ANC president Govan Mbeki was not included.

At a stakeholders’ consultation session yesterday, Masualle officially announced that the province had signed a memorandum of understanding to “reinvigorate” the campaign.

“This is a very important branding exercise to launch the home of legends campaign. We are here to mobilise stakeholders to buy into the concept and be involved,” Masualle said.

Some of the stakeholders who attended the event included the East London IDZ, Coega, Border-Kei Chamber of Business, Transnet and Eskom, among others.

Also present was former Walter Sisulu University vice-chancellor Professor Malusi Marcus Balintulo, who is now the heritage council’s board chairman.

Asked what would be done differently this time to ensure the campaign did not fail, Masualle said it would be relaunched to accommodate other “wealth” of the province.

“Back then it was merely political branding of the province. However, the province has excelled not just in the political arena, but also in other disciplines, including music.

“The province has a wealth of legendary people that have made South Africa what it is today.”

NHC CEO Sonwabile Mancotywa said they had been tasked with developing a strategy that would not only be about branding the province, but also re-writing its history.

“Back then there was not enough consultation and the conceptual framework was not very clear. We marketed something that was not clearly defined.

“The premier has now partnered with the heritage council to assist with the development of the concept further,” Mancotywa said.

“We have started with the development of a framework and there are certain areas that are covered there including definition of a legend because there are many people that have played legendary roles, not only politicians.”

A draft concept document issued at the stakeholders’ sessions outlined some of the problems the campaign faced, which included:

lNon-consultation with critical stakeholders;

lExisting communication structures not fully utilised; and

lThe campaign was not premised on a solid foundation of academic research to back up the choices of legends and provide narrative context.

The document also reflected on the positive stating that the campaign was potentially an excellent example of how heritage could be leveraged to build identity and stimulate economic development. — siphem@dispatch.co.za