Brand South Africa to host a special debate on the sidelines of the EU-AU Summit

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA � African Media Agency – 16 February 2022 – The debate titled “The South Africa perspective: Can the EU & Africa reboot their relationship” will be hosted in partnership with Euronews, Europe’s leading international news media, and its sister channel Africanews. The live debate will take place on the first day of the Summit, 17 February 2022, at 16:00 CAT and will be live-streamed on euronews.com and africanews.com, and across their social platforms.

The internationally acclaimed former Euro News anchor, Chris Burns will host the session. The debate will focus on main issues shaping South Africa-EU relations, including vaccine production, sustainable development, security, energy, education and economic integration and recovery.

 ”Africa has come a long way since the first summit held in Cairo in 2001. The upcoming sixth summit presents an opportunity to achieve the vision of the 2001 summit, something that has been elusive for two decades. This sixth installment is taking place at a time governments are implementing recovery plans to rebuild their economies dented by the pandemic, the worst to hit the world in more than 100 years,” says Sithembile Ntombela, Acting CEO of Brand South Africa.  

 

Chris will be joined by Colin Coleman, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and former senior fellow at Yale University; Domenico Rosa, Head of the Task Force on Post Cotonou at the European Commission; Bajabulile Tshabalala, Senior Vice-President at the African Development Bank Group; Ronak Gopaldas, Director at Signal Risk; Dr Carlos Lopes, economist and honorary professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Governance at the University of Cape Town (UCT); and Luisa Santos, Head of International Relations at BusinessEurope.

“No emerging market has the sophisticated capital markets, strong business sector, independent judiciary, central bank and free press that South Africa has; yet the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality threaten its’ stability. Come discover if and how the nation can thread this needle.” Colin Coleman 

 

“As South Africa, we would like to play a key role in leading the discussions on how EU can partner with African countries to rebuild their covid-19 ravaged economies, thereby contributing to solutions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. There are opportunities for the two continents to co-operate in the manufacturing of covid-19 vaccines,and increased efforts in reducing vaccine hesitancy.. All nations, rich and poor, have an obligation to work together to end the pandemic,” adds Ntombela

 

The debate will be live streamed on: https://www.euronews.com/2022/02/04/euronews-debates-can-the-eu-africa-reboot-their-relationship1, viewers can also follow the conversations under the hash tag, #EUSouthAfricaFocus and #BrandSouthAfrica. The audience is invited to send their questions to the experts via social media.

About Brand South Africa

Brand South Africa is the official marketing agency of South Africa, with a mandate to build the country’s brand reputation, to improve its global competitiveness. Its aim is also to build pride and patriotism among South Africans, to contribute to social cohesion and nation brand ambassadorship.

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