Famous Faces Management

Professor Xolela Mangcu, sharing his views on South Africa's relationship with America, in conversation with Stuart Lee "It's going to be uphill but I think we have to put the effort into it. We don't do public diplomacy very well in this country. We have no presence in the United States, I mean we do have an embassy, but it might as well not be there. Unless there's a concerted effort to actually build relationships, to build a profile to banish the history we've had. I'm writing a book about Nelson Mandela, I've just finished writing that book about Nelson Mandela and there's so much interest in the United States because of who Mandela was, what he represented, what he symbolized and every day people ask me what's going on in your country - what happened?" #connectedandconnecting #famousfaces

Stuart Lee speaking with Bongani Bingwa. "And so I think what we try to do, or what I try to do, certainly, is to center the conversation not just about what people think of the world but how people walk through this world. So a lot of our conversations are centered around people's personal experiences, we get them talking and they are the foremost expert on themselves and their history. They can tell you the sounds, the smells, what it felt like, their responses, what they were thinking, their observations. And no one can dare say they are wrong. And so we center a lot of the conversations around people's experiences" #connectedandconnecting #famousfaces

Stuart Lee in conversation with Stephen Grootes. "That will still be my main my main thing for them so there's a lot going on and what I'm fascinated by at the moment is what I call the lines of influence. So for example, there might be some in the ANC who want to remove Cyrils Ramaphosa as president and as leader of the ANC But if they do that the DA probably walks away and the coalition probably falls apart. This goes in other directions too, Helen Ziller or John Steenhuisen might well wish to say something in public about a particular issue but they can't because the ANC might walk away so it's a very interesting time." #connectedandconnecting #themoneyshow #famousfaces

Professor Xolela Mangcu in conversation with Stuart Lee "I think we've made a strategic blunder as a country by antagonizing the United States. I mean our economy is probably zero percent of global GDP and here we are antagonizing a country whose GDP is probably a third to a quarter of the world. Under the misguided notion that because of our history we should align ourselves with Russia and China. But if you look at the history actually you'll find that it is only the ANC people who were in exile who had those relationships. The bulk of black South Africa in particular had stronger linkages with the United States. And I make a distinction here between the American government with whom we can disagree and the American people. We've had a long lasting historical relationship with America, American civil society was behind the anti-apartheid movement. It was organizing by American civil society that led, ultimately, to the adoption of sanctions and the overthrow of the veto by Ronald Reagan in the 1980's. So it seems to me, completely misguided, when we could build strong institutions I'd rather build strong institutions with American universities than with Russian governments or Russian universities. The know-how the knowledge the connections the values the democratic values we share with the United States is starkly different from anything we share with Russia or China or those countries and we need to build on those relationships."

Alex van den Heever in conversation with Stuart Lee. "There are no signposts, there are no consultants to talk to, the trackers are forced to start understanding what the signs are and recognize them and start to make interpretations about what activity is going on around them. Everything around you is beyond your influence and I think that's very similar to the political and economical situation we're in currently where so much is beyond our influence right now especially with all the changes that are happening. It seems to be as we go through time that change becomes more prominent and I can tell you that trackers deal with change, they see change as naturally part of the environment, they don't get derailed by it..." #connectedandconnecting #famousfaces

A book launch full of laughs, truths and lessons-hard-learnt. Alan Knott-Craig in conversation with the deep-diving Miles Kubheka. The book makes for a memerable and eye-opening talk too.

Alex van den Heever describes part of his unique presentation he recently gave to our client. "And we've done that purposely because in the bush information is never perfect. So we put the audience the participants into the same kind of a situation that we were in with the exact limited amount of information and we asked them to make a decision. But before we do that we go into how trackers make decisions and we go into the mindset of the tracker. And really Stuart there is no real right or wrong decision, just accept each one has a consequence . We have even filmed the consequence of those decisions so the participants not only get to make the decision they get to view the outcome of the decision which makes it really exciting and valuable. #famousfaces #connectedandconnecting #alexvandenheever

#Famousfacesspeaker, Alex Van Heerden sharing his experience with Ren, one of the last people alive today to be raised on the original traditions of a Shangaan hunter-gatherer. "Interestingly he's one of the last people alive today to be raised on the original traditions of a Shangaan hunter-gatherer. The two of us were put together as ranger and tracker and arriving as a young whitey know-it-all I'd been through the training and I thought I was ready to take on the job. It didn't take long for me to realize that actually, Ren, was going to keep me alive and he was in total control. In many ways he was able to create an environment where we could deliver this world-class safari to people all around the world. What has ensued has been a three decade long journey that has profoundly changed both of our lives #connectedandconnecting #famousfaces

Catching up with Stephen Grootes #connectedandconnecting #famousfaces #themoneyshow

Having worked with so many of the top political analysts over the years, there's something about Stephen Grootes that just connects with the "often-under informed" (I would know!) He shines a light into those sometimes dark corners of political speak.