SAPCC Newsletter Mar 2023

NEWS LETTER

SAPCC

Participate in EU ChambersWestern Cape Trade and Investment Event

See page 2

Prime Minister underlines the importance of enhancing EU-Africa relations

See page 5

Minister of Foreign Affairs at the African Union Summit: "Portugal builds bridges with Africa"

See page 7

Severe load-shedding a growing threat to South Africa's food security

By Wandile Sihlobo

See page 10

Lisbon food affair is the largest national event in the food sector

See page 12

Hardiness and Resilience - two sides of the same coin?

By Tony de Gouveia

See page 14

Nacionalidade portuguesa já pode ser pedida online

See page 17

Starting again #1 –There is no shame

By Allon Raiz

See page 18

SAPCC Participate in EU Chambers-Western Cape Trade and Investment Event

On the 15th August 2022, SAPCC Premium Member, XL Novo Mundo Travel hosted their 50th Anniversary celebrations at their offices in Bruma, Johannesburg. The event was attended by the Ambassador of Portugal, Dr Manuel Carvalho, Portuguese Consul General, Graça Fonseca, Novo Mundo’s staff, clients, stakeholders and SAPCC representatives.

SAPCC GM, Rui Fragoso, led the SAPCC delegation comprising premium members with interests in the Western Cape. The delegation was joined by acting Ambassador Manuel Grainha do Vale and Consul General of Portugal in Cape Town, Jorge Sampayo. The SAPCC participation marked a first for the SAPCC in the Western Cape.

The breakfast was attended by key stakeholders including European investors active in SA.

SAPCC GM, Rui Fragoso with some of the SAPCC Premium Member Delegation and Consul General of Portugal in Cape Town, Jorge Sampayo

The Western Cape provincial government has been pushing to position the province as the lowest carbon region in SA and the leading green economic hub. The need to attract more investment into green energy has become more urgent as the country battles its worst ever electricity crisis, which is seen as the biggest threat to the economy.

“The crisis, however, has most certainly been the catalyst for innovation,” Wrenelle Stander, the CEO of Wesgro, told delegates.

“Right now, we are seeing unique, multi-year opportunities emerging right here in our province driven by international shifts to clean energy; geopolitics; the loadshedding crisis in South Africa; and importantly, policy reforms in the energy space in South Africa,” Stander said.

The EU is SA’s largest trading partner and its biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI), with more than 1,000 European companies active in SA, and collectively responsible for 350 000 jobs.

Brussels is a global leader in the green transition and was one of the first regions to commit to achieving a just transition away from fossil fuels. As one of the key international partners in SA’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), the EU intends to contribute about $1bn of the total $8.5bn funding package needed to accelerate SA’s decarbonisation drive and transition away from coal towards cleaner forms of energy.

SA’s energy crisis has triggered unprecedented momentum behind renewables.

“The EU has invested more into renewable energy in the Western Cape than into any other sector. With recent policy shifts to open the energy market to private investment, investment into clean energy technologies is expected to increase exponentially. This, in turn, of course, supports the achievement of much needed energy security,” Stander said.

She highlighted that the Western Cape provincial government put in place the building blocks to encourage investment into a greener economy more than a decade ago.

Speaking at the same event, Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, emphasised that the role of government is to create a conducive environment necessary to attract investment and for businesses to thrive. The city is pulling out all the stops to boost energy security, including paying businesses and residents a feed-in tariff for supplying excess electricity to the local grid, Hill-Lewis said.

“Of course, the situation could be even better, with more investments and more job creation, specifically in the green and digital areas that have now become the focus of the world transition towards a greener and digital economy…with more policy certainty, a smoother visa regime, security and – above all – access to reliable, resilient and sustainable energy,” Kramer said.

Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, said the province and the EU have a long and proud history of collaboration borne out by the impressive economic, trade, investment, and tourism ties.

The Western Cape has a strong economic relationship with the EU accounting for 34.15% of inward foreign direct investment projects into the province in 2022. In 2021, the Western Cape’s exports to the EU increased by 13.24%, from R30.53bn recorded in 2020 to R34.57bn in 2021. Similarly, imports increased from R34.96bn in 2020 to R46.49bn in 2021.

Western Cape MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger

EU Ambassador, Sandra Kramer

“We are also proud to be a destination of choice for travellers from Europe, with 7 out of the top 10 source markets to Cape Town originating from the continent. I look forward to building on and strengthening our relations, as we work together on our strategic priorities, to ensure that we continue to improve the lives of our peoples,” Wenger said.

Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, said boosting energy security is a crucial to attract more investment into the province. He said, however, the crisis presents an opportunity to accelerate green growth.

“What is this province? The Cape of Good Hope. The Western Cape is South Africa’s province of hope. What does it mean for business? Businesses are not only looking at the city, but beyond. The whole province is full of opportunity. The energy crisis presents great

opportunity [to attract more investment in green energy],” the Premier said.

The SAPCC member delegation provided very positive feedback on the event and encouraged the SAPCC to grow its activity in the Western Cape. SAPCC intend to follow up with a return visit to the province to visit key businesses owned by Portuguese or Luso-South African entrepreneurs. The event provided an important networking opportunity for all the participants of the various EU chambers. We thank all those that attended the event.

We thank sponsors and co-hosts Wesgro, Claudine Vandenabeele and Pamina Bohrer and the EU Chamber, Silverio Silva and the Novo Mundo Travel team and CEO KIA SA, Gary Scott and Kia Tygervalley.

Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde with the Wesgro team

Consul General of Portugal in Cape Town, Jorge Sampayo and SAPCC GM, Rui Fragoso

Prime Minister underlines the importance of enhancing EU-Africa relations

Prime Minister António Costa with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, with African Union leaders, Addis Ababa, 19 February 2023

Prime Minister António Costa noted the importance of enhancing the relationship between Europe and Africa by attending the 36th African Union Summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, as an observer.

António Costa, who was the only European Head of Government in attendance, wrote on Twitter the message he passed on to the African leaders: "at a time when Europe is called to respond to major challenges, now more than ever it is fundamental that we continue to enhance our relations with Africa".

On the side of the summit, the Portuguese Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with the Heads of State and Government of countries such as Rwanda, Niger, Madagascar, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and Mozambique, and met with numerous other African and global leaders, of which we highlight the UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres, and the Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration, António Vitorino.

Mi GRAT ion pAc T

The Prime Minister also attended, by invitation, the meeting between the President of the European Council, Charles Michel and the heads of the African

Union, where Michel put forward a proposal for a pact between Europe and Africa to regulate migration flows, which António Costa backed.

"The neighbours co-exist and this co-existence must be duly regulated and not an opportunity for organised crime and a threat to the lives of all those who want to find a new life on the other side of the Mediterranean", the Prime Minister told Lusa.

António Costa added that "we must find a solution that is positive for all because Europe undoubtedly needs more human resources "and "Africa has plenty of human resources".

Yet, "Europe must also find the way to help create new jobs on the African continent so that we don’t simply lose human resources on the African continent".

i ndu STR i A li SAT ion

"It makes sense to bring back to Europe a series of industrial production activities that were transferred to Asia and can be located in Europe", he said, underlining that "many of these can also be located on the African continent, helping towards its development".

This will help to create jobs that will bring hope to the youths on the continent, that are not doomed to believe that the only way they can find decent work is by risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean", he stressed.

The Prime Minister also referred to the summit agreements between the European Union and the African Union, claiming that "despite the unrest the war [in Ukraine] brought throughout this year", "the strategic projects we approved at the summit one year ago have moved forward".

Now, there is the "need to give these projects a new boost, especially because Europe, more than ever, needs to diversify its energy sources, yet also because we need to invest heavily" in Africa, "the youngest continent in the world".

Lastly, António Costa claimed he is confident regarding António Vitorino being re-elected to remain at the helm of the International Organisation for Migration, noting that all the African leaders he spoke to support the Portuguese director-general remaining in his post.

Source: https://www.portugal.gov.pt/en/gc23/communication/ news-item?i=prime-minister-underlines-the-importance-ofenhancing-eu-africa-relations

Minister of Foreign Affairs at the African Union Summit: "Portugal builds bridges with Africa"

Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Gomes Cravinho, attends bilateral meetings with counterparts and African Union leaders, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15 February 2023.

The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, claimed at the African Union summit that Portugal wants to take on a leading role to "assist the European Union in understanding what is changing on the African continent".

The Minister was speaking to Lusa Press Agency in Addis Ababa, where he began a series a bilateral meetings on the days prior to the Summit with Heads of State and Government on 18 and 19 February, which will be attended by the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa.

as it has "a certain tradition of taking part in African Union summits", yet never at the level of a Head of Government, which represents "acknowledgment by the African Union of what Portugal is: a bridge linking Africa and Europe".

Secu R i T y AR chi T ec T u R e

Minister João Gomes Cravinho, who met with Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security on Wednesday, also said that the African "security architecture" is "weakened" and that the commissioner asked him "for the support of countries like Portugal and institutions such as the European Union" for peace and stability on the continent, in line with the principle of "African solutions for African problems".

The head of Portuguese diplomacy also said that the country is highly committed to "underlining the European Union’s direct interest within the European space and at the same time, we are interested in identifying the necessary adjustments", including politically in the EU, in order to assist the African continent.

João Gomes Cravinho states that Portugal’s support in the European Union may also include replicating some models of cooperation in the field of security, as is the case with the successful training missions in northern Mozambique.

Of these cases, the Minister went on to say, we need "to know how to extract the lessons learned" and Portugal is "quite well positioned" to play this role,

In this sense, the Portuguese MFA explains, the AU is considering revising the 1977 Convention against mercenary activities on the African continent, in order to prevent the presence, among others, of the Wagner Group, an organisation close to the Kremlin tat operates in several African countries. If the measure is approved, the road will be paved "for countries such as the Central African Republic or Mali to follow a new peace approach".

On the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, "in which several African countries are engaged", Gomes Cravinho stated that the parties should sit "around the negotiation table to find peaceful solutions for the problems opposing these countries, but which are also of domestic nature".

Source: https://www.portugal.gov.pt/en/gc23/communication/ news-item?i=minister-of-foreign-affairs-at-the-african-unionsummit-portugal-builds-bridges-with-africa

Severe load-shedding a growing threat to South Africa's food security

By Wandile Sihlobo*

Wandile Sihlobo

The food security risk from severe loadshedding is evident across South Africa’s agricultural sector and the broader food, fibre and beverages value chain. The ministerial task team assessing the impact and crafting response mechanisms to lessen the blow needs to move speedily as the challenge in the farms and food processing facilities worsens each day.

Aside from the power crisis, the latest harvest news in wine grapes and maize paints a mixed outlook for these subsectors.

Wine grapes for this year are projected to be lower than the 2022 harvest because of unfavourable weather earlier in the season. The wine industry will release its production estimates later this month but has already indicated the prospects of lower yields.

This means wine production could also be lower than 2022 levels, with preliminary estimates pointing to an output of around 800-million litres. This will add pressure to an industry still recovering from the slump through the worst of the pandemic, when the ban on sales had a severe negative financial impact.

This industry is labour-intensive and any additional financial strain in an already low-profit environment could negatively affect employment, particularly seasonal labour.

One effective response to assist the wine industry, especially through this tough year, would be for the

National Treasury to review the excise tax burdens for wine. These are at 11% — well above the other emerging markets’ duties on wine producers.

In the maize subsector, the near-term outlook is somewhat better. The season started with excessive rains, which slowed some regions’ planting by roughly a month. But this proved beneficial when we confronted the heatwave in the past two weeks as the soil moisture was reasonably high and cushioned the crop.

This is the case for roughly 80% of rain-fed regions of maize. The preliminary production estimates from organisations such as the US department of agriculture paint a positive picture, forecasting South Africa’s 2022/23 maize crop at 15.6-million tonnes, down only 3% from the previous season.

This includes commercial and non-commercial maize. The non-commercial estimate is 600,000 tonnes, down from 667,000 tonnes in the previous season. The minor decline reflects reduced area plantings and slightly lower yields.

It is still early in the season, and these estimates could change.

The crop estimates committee (CEC) holds a cautious view, estimating the area plantings for commercial maize to be 2.5-million hectares, which is down 4% from the USDA estimate. Still, these are tentative figures. The CEC will release its revised area planting and the first production estimates on February 28. If the area planted remained unchanged at 2.5-million hectares, with an average yield of 5.6 tonnes per hectare (lower than the USDA’s yield estimate of 5.7), then the commercial maize crop could be around 14-million tonnes.

This would be well below the CEC’s estimate of the 2021/22 commercial maize harvest of 15.4-million tonnes (when the yield was 5.9 tonnes per hectare). Still, this harvest would be well above the annual consumption of around 11.8-million tonnes and maintain South Africa’s status as a net exporter of maize.

Such a harvest could contribute towards softening maize prices from levels we saw in previous years. The critical drivers of maize prices in the past season were global, such as drought in South America, rising demand in China and the Russia-Ukraine war.

With global grain prices having softened in the past few months, that trend will likely filter into the South African market, even if this is to a more limited extent than in the world market. Both white and yellow spot maize prices in the July contract months are below R5,000 per tonne.

These price levels benefit consumers and the poultry and livestock industries, which have faced higher feed costs over the past few years. The two industries face unique challenges from load-shedding and its associated costs; thus, any relief in feed prices would be welcome.

In sum, the agricultural sector and the entire food, fibre and beverages value chain remain on shaky ground because of dependency on a consistent energy supply.

Government interventions to ease this burden are crucial as there are serious food security risks. Beyond the challenges presented by the power crisis, weather conditions have created varying outlooks across different subsectors.

The wine industry is on a recovery path, but lower wine grape harvests and excise tax will continue to weigh on the sector. The National Treasury should review the excise tax to ease the pressure in this critical and labourintensive industry. The picture of maize production remains positive and supportive of staple food availability and the livestock and poultry sector.

* Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture.” Sihlobo is Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University. Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 after serving on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture between 2018 and 2019. Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day and Farmers Weekly magazine.

Lisbon food affair is the largest national event in the food sector

The Lisbon Food Affair was also the stage for a series of highly relevant dynamics for the sectors, with emphasis on conferences, talks, presentations and showcooking, based on innovation, sustainability and internationalisation.

For Marina Calheiros, Coordinating Manager, one of the main objectives was to “make this event more than just a product show, a real stage for experiences, so it was with great satisfaction that we saw that companies responded enthusiastically to this challenge .” Thus, experimentation was the dynamic most used by exhibitors with the aim of testing new products and receive rapid feedback on new market needs and demands.

Lisbon Food Affair ended its first edition with a very positive balance, revealing itself to be the most important event for the food and beverage sectors, Hotel and Restaurant channel and Food Technology held in Portugal. Between the 12th and the 15th of February, this event was the epicentre of great business, resulting not only from the quality of the present offer - with market leading exhibitors representing more than 500 brands - but also from the high level of professional visitors, national and foreign.

Still according to Marina Calheiros, internationalization – another of the event’s strategic axes – proved to be a great success, giving as an example “the more than 200 meetings between international buyers, invited by the Lisbon Food Affair, and participating companies, which resulted in effective business for almost all exhibitors.” These meetings brought to Portugal around 30 international buyers from countries such as Spain,

China, Angola, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Italy, Morocco, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, on a visit to the Lisbon Food Affair, dubbed the event a “showcase of the good things we produce in our country” and highlighted that “national products, marked by strong investment in innovation, quality, sustainability and safety food, shine in our gastronomy, in our tradition, but also across borders. This is what

we prove, here, in this initiative". For his part, Bernardo Ivo Cruz, Secretary of State for Internationalization, highlighted how much the Lisbon.

Food Affair is aligned with the Government's strategic concerns in terms of innovation, internationalization and sustainability.

The next edition is scheduled for the 18th, 19th and 20th of February 2024.

South African Ambassador to Portugal, Ambassador Gaoretelelwe attends the Lisbon Food Affair event.

The Lisbon Food Affair featured the Secretary of State for Internationalization - Bernardo Ivo Cruz.

The Lisbon Food Affair featured the visit by Maria do Céu Antunes, Minister of Agriculture and Food.

Hardiness and Resiliencetwo sides of the same coin?

By Tony de Gouveia*

The above quotation may cause a reaction (often negative) in those of you who have been in the Military, where there is an expectation of Hardiness and Resilience in all persons who find themselves functioning there. And it is precisely these two characteristics (Hardiness and Resilience), prized by Armies all over the world (particularly in the Ukraine presently) that we will need to plug into in these VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) times. Certainly, listening recently to the Sasfin media commentator and market strategist David Shapiro’s commentary on the global economic and domestic situation currently -“ no one knows the answers…and it’s up to each one of us individually”, one is left with the feeling that we are increasingly required to practise self-reliance to dig into all our own personal resources- physical, emotional, mental, financial etc if we are to find our way through the morass that confronts us both domestically and internationally.

In SA currently we see levels of chaos-a flux and fluidity that has arisen particularly over the last few months. The start of this new year has been coloured intensely by the current Eskom induced energy crisis which has escalated to level 6 shut downs, with the possibility of even higher level shut downs, . The effect of these has cast a pall of despair and a lack of hope across the entire economy with devastating effects. Surviving, particularly Psychologically, in such an environment seems to be becoming increasingly difficult if not impossible and many are falling prey to stress-related illnesses.

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So what do we do? Regular readers of this publication will know that I focus as far as possible on Resilience(bounceback-ability) in its many facets and applications since it seems to be the characteristic necessary for survival in these challenging times.

One answer could be the research done by Dr Suzanne Kobasa in the late 1970’s on Hardiness which can perhaps throw a light on the way forward for us.

In her research, conducted initially on male executives at Illinois Bell Telecoms during the downsizing process of that era, she discovered that, what differentiated those who broke down from stress-related illness and those who didn’t, was what she and her researchers termed

Gouveia

“Missiles flying over your head, if you want to survive get out of bed… Night is falling and you just can't see, is this illusion or reality?

You’re in the Army now, Oh-oo-oh you're in the army now” Status Quo

the “hardy personality”. According to her, hardy people are buffered against stressful life situations because they engage in certain emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses. The term “hardy” meant to be strong and tolerant of stressful situations, much like in the military sense of hardiness.

Kobasa identified three dimensions as being central to Hardiness/the hardy personality (mindset), namely challenge, personal control and commitment, commonly known as the 3C’s.

An external locus of control on the other hand refers to one believing/perceiving that any control in the particular situation is out of one’s hands and that one’s fate is in the hands of other person(s), external circumstances, the environment etc ie one is reactive. From a psychological perspective, one needs to strive for as much internal/ personal control as possible (thriving) but this is not always possible, hence I recommend the well-known “Serenity Prayer”.

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This disposition implies that change rather than stability is the normal experience in life and that life provides more opportunities for growth than threats to our security. Hardiness means interpreting adversity and resistance in terms of a personal challenge to be overcome. In South Africa the word “challenge” has euphemistically become a positive reframe for the many problems we face on a daily basis- from load-shedding and outages to potholes, from failing state owned enterprises (SOE’s) and unhelpful or corrupt state officials to crumbling infrastructure; the list goes on.

Another personal question that arises here is: what’s on your “bucket list?”. Unfortunately, much like the film of the same name (starring Jack Nicholsen and Morgan Freeman, it is only when faced with crises that we face the issue of challenge head on. Certainly, the current situation we find ourselves in South Africa can be deemed such a crisis, which can provide many opportunities to exercise this dimension.

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The Covid-19 era has essentially interfered with what we call our locus of Control in our lives. This is usually perceived in two forms- internal or external. When one has an internal locus of control, then one believes that the event/situation/outcome is largely influenced by oneself and one’s behaviour/actions-ie one can be proactive.

Hardy people are able to persist and persevere because they are committed and take an active, engaged stance towards life and its issues. They feel that they have a purpose (in whatever shape or form) that motivates them to attempt to influence their environment and persevere when these efforts don’t appear to be working out. Our “why” as discussed previously is very powerful and important. Problems occur when, due to life circumstances, our commitment to our purpose becomes compromised, particularly when we suffer from Burnout. One of the first symptoms of Burnout are cynicism and a questioning of the importance and validity of these commitments, particularly in our working lives. Those of us who have permanently lost our purpose- with no motivation and no commitment – become “Nowhere people” aka the Nowhere Man” (The Beatles).

Most commentators on the whole Hardiness approach suggest that the 3 C’s need to be seen together as one package and should not be viewed separately. Most who argue its validity and usefulness suggest that these are skills that can be developed much like one’s physical shape and form can be developed in a gym. One of these is Dr Salvatore Maddi author of the book “Resilience at Work: How to succeed no matter what life throws at you” and founder of the Hardiness Institute. Certainly, the current South African environment provides us many opportunities to practise the above dimensions of Hardiness, whether at home or at work. Instead of numbing ourselves to our emotions and/or limiting ourselves with addictive behaviour, we can build our emotional resilience. Some of us may in this process require the assistance of a professional psychologist therapist or coach on this journey towards Hardiness and Resilience but the benefits could be uniquely rewarding and fulfilling!

Declaration: This article has not been the product of a ChatGPT bot

*Tony de Gouveia is a Clinical Psychologist and Resilience Coach in Private Practice at the Akeso and Life Brackenview Clinics in Alberton. He is the founder of the Positive Psychology Group(PPG) in Johannesburg and has made numerous presentations on various topics in Psychology, Positive Psychology and Resilience in various forums Nationally and Internationally. https://tonydeGouveia psychologist.webs.com

Nacionalidade portuguesa já pode ser pedida online

Pedido de nacionalidade portuguesa online.

O pedido online de nacionalidade portuguesa está disponível no Portal da Justiça para mandatários, inscritos na Ordem dos Advogados e na Ordem dos Solicitadores e dos Agentes de Execução.

O serviço, lançado a 17 de fevereiro, exclusivamente para profissionais, permite, de forma totalmente desmaterializada, entregar pedidos de nacionalidade juntamente com a documentação obrigatória, realizar pagamentos, acompanhar o estado dos processos, completar e corrigir informação sem necessidade de deslocação a um balcão do Registo.

Na fase inicial, o serviço abrange os pedidos de cidadãos maiores de 18 anos que pretendem obter a nacionalidade portuguesa por via da residência legal em Portugal há, pelo menos, cinco anos e por via do casamento com uma pessoa de nacionalidade portuguesa. Progressivamente, até 17 de março, o serviço será alargado a todas as tipologias de pedido de nacionalidade.

Com o pedido online de nacionalidade, os profissionais passam a beneficiar de um canal exclusivo e conveniente que irá agilizar os pedidos de nacionalidade dos cidadãos que representam.

Os pedidos de nacionalidade passam também e beneficiar de uma ferramenta de validação automática da autenticidade de documentos com recurso à inteligência artificial, desenvolvida no âmbito da apresentação da Estratégia Govtech Justiça. Esta funcionalidade vai contribuir para aumentar a capacidade de resposta dos serviços, agilizando uma das etapas mais morosas destes processos.

A total desmaterialização dos pedidos vai melhorar a eficiência da resposta, reduzindo o atendimento presencial e a receção de pedidos em papel, mantendo a segurança e o rigor do processo.

O acesso e utilização da plataforma online requerem autenticação com o certificado da ordem profissional e assinatura digital, de forma a validar a qualidade profissional do mandatário. Mais informação pode ser consultada no Portal da Justiça, nos separadores Submeter pedido de nacionalidade e Perguntas e respostas.

Os cidadãos que não têm mandatário, nesta fase, deverão apresentar o pedido de nacionalidade portuguesa e a documentação necessária junto de um serviço de Registo com balcão de Nacionalidade. Em alternativa, poderão enviar os documentos por correio.

By Allon Raiz*

Starting again #1 – There is no shame

Many entrepreneurs will have no option but to close down their businesses. With the ravaging effects

COVID-19 has had on the economy, formal employment may not be an

Allon Raiz

alternative for many. Starting again is the only choice available for these entrepreneurs. In this series of articles, which SAPCC will be sharing, Allon Raiz draws on his more than 20 years of experience in business and in supporting over 13 000 entrepreneurial businesses to offer insights on the considerations and steps needed to start again and achieve the highest likelihood of success.

No one likes to fail and I include myself in that statement. Failure usually has financial, emotional and other consequences and costs. A failed business, more often than not, results in employees not being paid, creditors not being paid and a sense that years’ worth of effort, thinking and building have disappeared down the drain. Business failure often comes with a decimation of confidence in one’s own abilities. In a nutshell, failing at business sucks and it is painful!

Business literature is filled with stories of zero to hero to zero to hero . . . incredibly successful entrepreneurs who have built businesses, lost them and then rebuilt even bigger empires. The COVID-19 pandemic spawned a recent newspaper headline about Richard Branson losing his beloved Virgin Airlines. But I doubt that anyone reading that headline honestly believes that Branson will not make a comeback of sorts – perhaps in the airline industry but most likely in some other industry or context. Elon Musk has been receiving the same level of scrutiny in the press and, depending on the month, you will read that Tesla is either ill-fated or a beacon of entrepreneurial success and perseverance. Up and down and up and down and up.

n eve R Wo RRy AB ou T W h AT oT he RS SAy, G ood o R BA d

When I first began my entrepreneurial journey in my early twenties, I received some press coverage from one of the financial magazines which I promptly showed to my mentor – like a dog bringing his master his slippers. My mentor briefly perused the article and responded, “That’s nice. But don’t believe a word they say about you!” Upon receiving a quizzical look from me, he went on, “If you attach meaning or importance to all the positive things they say about you, one day in the future when things might not be going so well and

they write negative things about you, you will attach importance to that, too. You need to determine how you feel about you, and not rely on some third party.”

Successful entrepreneurs have an internal locus of control and derive their confidence and self-belief from within. In my many years of working with entrepreneurs, one of the most important frames of mind with which I try to instil entrepreneurs is to develop an academic relationship with their business as a balance to the often emotional and passionate relationship they have with it. Entrepreneurs need to toggle easily between passion mode and academic (dispassionate) mode. The passionate mode brings with it sheer will and perseverance when there seems to be no logical way through a problem. The academic relationship, on the other hand, ensures that there is place for logical business decisions that are based on fact and not clouded by emotional bias.

l ickin G Wound S

When a business does fail (and it happens to a lot of people), it is important to give yourself some time to feel the pain and all the negative emotions that come with failure. But give yourself a time limit – perhaps a week –to lick your wounds and process the experience before disciplining yourself to toggle to the academic state of mind. The discipline to properly manage your recovery period is critical in starting again. Too long and you may have spiralled out of control. Too short and you may not have dealt with all the emotional issues.

In the world of sport, injury is commonplace, and those with the ability to quickly recover from minor and major injuries tend to be those who build prolific sports careers. The same is true of sportspeople have lost a game, a match or a critical point. It is the speed at which they recover from the setback that determines whether they will become champions or not. Once you get to an “oh-well-that-happened” state of mind, you are ready to move forward.

One of the most important aspects of toggling to an academic state of mind is that it allows you to assess (after the failure) what assets you may be left with, what relationships you still have left, and what skills you have accumulated. You literally need to take stock, in a nonemotive way, of all these elements as they will become the foundation of your comeback.

FR o M pA in To S h AM e To ch A n G in G you R GAM e

Many entrepreneurs who close down their businesses will most likely open up a similar business. The advantages the second time around are more experience and more learning from the mistakes made in the previous iteration. An entrepreneur I know, who was making 38% gross-profit margins before COVID-19 in a business he recently shut down, is now making 57% gross-profit margins in a new business he’s set up. He has simply shed all the legacy people, processes and clients that hindered his ability to make good margins.

The week after he voluntarily shut down his business (which had been in operation for 11 years), he was devastated, depressed and angry. Only ten weeks later, his words to me were, “COVID-19 was the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. I went from pain, to shame, to changing my game.”setting the scene, I asked them how long they had been partners, and how well they believed they communicated. Five years and very well were the answers.

The S h AM e GAM e

Shame plays no role in the failure of successful entrepreneurs or sportspeople. Once the wounds have been licked and the failure acknowledged, they recover their mindsets at lightning speed and begin the process of rebirth – but this time with the added advantages of additional relationships, additional assets and additional experience.

At a random yet serendipitous lunch encounter at the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I had a discussion with a Dr Diane Frances, a Canadian working in the USA. Her view, which I agree with, was that the re-entry rate of entrepreneurs (those who start again after a failure) was significantly different in fearbased societies compared to shame-based societies. Shame-based societies are those that shame failure and this is very common in Commonwealth countries, South Africa and Canada included – the whole “children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard” or “did-youhear-the-Joneses-lost-everything?” way of viewing the world. The United States, for all its ills, does not shame failure. In a weird way, it venerates failure. As a result of these differing outlooks on failure, a research paper produced some years ago showed that the re-entry rate (the number of times entrepreneurs start again) is 3.6 times in the USA as opposed to 1.1 times in South Africa. I believe that this statistic has a lot to do with the structural shame that exists within our society.

*Allon Raiz is the CEO of Raizcorp. In 2008, Raiz was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and in 2011 he was appointed for the first time as a member of the Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship. Following a series of entrepreneurship master classes delivered at Oxford University in 2014, 2015 and 2016, Raiz has been recognised as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Follow Allon on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allonraiz.

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