South Africa, Feb. 18 -- SA Tourism: An antidote to all the bitterness, anger and defeatism; slack PR company sent a Happy New Year wish - on 31 January. Irritating.

I have to think it was no coincidence that the new SA Tourism TV ad started flighting on Thursday night, just around the time Cyril Ramaphosa was delivering (sorry - trying to deliver) his State of the Nation address.

Ramaphosa, I was reminded this week on the 30th anniversary of the release of Madiba, has been hailed as the Great Negotiator, but I think that there are reasons to view him as the Great Marketer.

He was one of the ANC's leading members at the Codesa talks in the early '90s, which led eventually to freedom on 27 April, 1994. and, no doubt, he would have sold ...