Proudly South African is the country’s only official buy local advocacy campaign. In addition to being a brand itself, it is also a membership-based organisation whose logo is carried by many other brands, making its reputation inextricably linked with theirs.
All of the brands associated with and affiliated to Proudly SA collectively have a role to play in giving the buy local movement and the logo that represents it, prominence on their products. By exposing consumers to our brand, on FMCG items, clothing and apparel, white goods, furniture, manufactured items, on services such as airlines and hotel groups, we will be energising the brand and demonstrating South Africa’s capacity to produce excellence.
It is a well held belief that together we are better and stronger. A critical mass of members using our logo is what will give Proudly South African an enhanced presence in the market. But buying local doesn’t only have to be about the Proudly SA logo. Many consumers are unaware that labelling legislation in South Africa requires all products to show the country of origin of a product and so failing a company being a logo bearing member, we can still reinvigorate local manufacturing by ensuring we always buy items made here at home.
In the context of our current economic situation as we begin to emerge battered and bruised from the effects of the commercial lockdown, it is more important than ever to focus our buying power on locally grown, produced and manufactured goods and services.
When imports were log jammed at international ports of exit and here at domestic ports of entry, South Africans wanted for almost nothing on the shelves of our stores. It was local manufacturers that ensured that from field to fork, our nutritional needs were met and that as winter approached, we were equipped for the cold weather with winter clothing and blankets.
Right now, we must examine our own personal and corporate purchasing habits and our reliance on – or preference for – imported goods. By buying imported items we are exporting jobs and assisting overseas economies to get back on their feet. Whilst we are still a player in the global economy, it is incumbent on us as South Africans to put our own economy back to work and to ensure that jobs are retained or re created as we become economically active once again.
By supporting local manufacturers to keep people in work we are also creating a cycle of economically active citizens who have purchasing power of their own and so we perpetuate the stimulation of the economy.
There are some grim facts and figures that we must confront as an economically damaged country and world, but buying local is a way of demonstrating the pride we have in our own skills, of supporting job retention and creation and of building the Proudly South African brand and all those brands that feed into it.