ANA
MORE businesses needed to start positioning Africa as an attractive place for investors to channel their investments to the continent and to create jobs.
This was according Talia Sanhewe, founder and owner of Talia Productions, an emerging television and media firm based in Cape Town that specialises in telling Africa’s growth story, and who selected five Capetonians to feature in an advert for a new Old Mutual Alternative Investments campaign.
And one of the selected faces for the campaign was Lena Dasi – a pensioner from Gugulethu who is in her 80s and who had never dreamed of starring in an advertising campaign.
When African News Agency arrived at Buchanan Studios where the photoshoot was taking place, the studio was already abuzz with activity. The crew was busy getting the studio and models ready for the shoot, but the star of the show, Dasi, was nowhere to be seen yet. Then the door swung open and in walked Dasi, with Sanhewe.
“God is good to me!” exclaimed Dasi as she walked in, accompanied by her friend, Venus Nogqala, both women impeccably dressed with traditional doeks (headscarves) on their heads, and their faces lit up with broad smiles.
Dasi had good reasons for smiling. It was her 82nd birthday and she got to celebrate her birthday in style by posing as a model for the very first time in her life. For her, the photoshoot was a celebration of life, and of God’s goodness.
Opportunity knocks
It was also, for her, an opportunity to experience what it is like to work again after so many years. She recounted how she had left the Transkei as a teenager for Cape Town’s bright lights. In Cape Town, she found work as a domestic worker for two families and stopped working when she got married to raise a family of eight children.
“It is so nice to have work again, my heart is happy,” Dasi said.
She was one of five models selected for the photoshoot, which aims to position Old Mutual Alternative Investments’ brand identity and at the same time, position Africa as a place for investors to do business.
Out of the five chosen models, only one was a professional model. The remaining four, including Dasi, were ordinary residents from Gugulethu.
“This photoshoot is an incredible opportunity to tell the African growth story to the world through powerful images,” Sanhewe said.
Africa, she said, “is increasingly becoming an attractive market for investors to channel impact investments to, as the scope for making a difference within the continent through various initiatives that help lift people out of poverty is huge”.
At the same time, these investors were able to see great returns on investments through these initiatives. The photoshoot, she said, was just one example that illustrated how investments could benefit communities by providing work opportunities to local people.
In the background, Max Models professional model, Sive Mcitwa-Makaula, 26, and two young women, Melanie Mlalalzi, 21 and Belinda Sombumbu, 21, who are both students at University of Western Cape and a young man, Nkosikhona Mambumba, 20 were being photographed. All wore outfits, resplendent with the richness of the African continent.
Mcitwa-Makaula said: “As a professional model, it is humbling to work with real people who had never modelled before and share my expertise with them.”
Mlalazi and Sombumbu who had both never modelled before, said that they enjoyed the experience and learning the ropes from a professional model.
The two young women said they would see how the photoshoot went before deciding whether they wanted to explore modelling as a career.
Mambumbu said: “Being on set is a good thing for me because I get to discover my talents and I am learning how to communicate with people because I am naturally very shy.”
Noting the powerful ethnic outfits that were accessorised with beadwork and gold jewellery, Sanhewe said the images the models portrayed spoke to the strong, affluent Africa that they wanted to showcase to the world.
Investors
“Africa is a place for international investors to put their money into the continent. It is all about showing a very front-footed Africa that is capable of delivering very good returns for investors at a competitive level,” she said.
Through this campaign, Sanhewe said, Africa was being positioned as “an aspirational place to do business. Africa today is no longer about the begging bowl narrative – it is about Africa coming into her own as a strong contender in the international investing sphere”.
The photoshoot stemmed from a documentary Talia Productions had done for the Old Mutual Alternative Investments’ Development Impact Funds in which Sanhewe said, “we focused on telling the story of how the R13 billion that they are managing is impacting positively on people’s lives.
“We humanised the funds through interviewing individuals whose lives were positively impacted by the funds to make R13bn come alive.”
When it was Dasi’s turn to be called to the make-up room, she sat down in the chair and looked in the mirror for a few moments as the make-up artist dabbed foundation on to her face.
She then looked at Sanhewe, smiled and shared: “It’s my first time to have make-up, first time ever!” The emotion on Dasi’s face was palpable.
When Dasi had finished her turn in front of the cameras, Sanhewe and her production assistant emerged with a surprise birthday cake, and a bouquet of pink roses, singing happy birthday.
“This is the best birthday in my life!” said a delighted Dasi.