Nkwenkwe Nkomo
Encyclopedia
Nkwenkwe Nkomo of South Africa
is the group deputy chairman of FCB SA, South Africa's largest marketing
communication
group, and chairperson of the Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA) of South Africa. He also served as one of 12 elected volunteer members of the World Scout Committee, the main executive body of the World Organization of the Scout Movement
. As an anti-apartheid student activist in the 1970s, he was one of the so-called "SASO nine
" imprisoned on Robben Island
for six years.
Nkomo speaks nine South African languages. "That came through living in the township, not through a formal program," says Nkomo. Nkwenkwe is Xhosa
for "little boy", and Nkomo means "cow", so his name means "cowboy".
Nkomo always wears a signature fez perched on his head.
(SASO), which broke away from the National Union of South African Students
(NUSAS), and a national organiser of the Black People's Convention
. He and eight other SASO leaders (known as the "SASO nine") were arrested in 1974 and charged with "conspiring to overturn the state by unconstitutional means". The Black Consciousness
leader Steve Biko
testified at length in his defence, a year before Biko was beaten to death by security policemen. The accused (including Strini Moodley
and Mosiuoa Lekota
) were convicted and sentenced to prison. Nkomo spent two years in prison while on trial and six years on Robben Island
, in the same prison as Nelson Mandela
and many other anti-apartheid leaders.
communication
group. When he was released from prison on 20 December 1982, Len van Zyl of what was then Lindsay Smithers took him on as a junior copywriter. He rose to creative director, a position he held for seven years, before being appointed group deputy chairman in 1995. His core functions center on corporate transformation, new business development, key client contacts and industry matters.
In 2007, Nkomo was appointed chairperson of the Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA) of South Africa. He is also the deputy chairperson of the 2010 National Communication Partnership for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
which will be hosted in South Africa.
, for a six-year term, along with five other members from a field of 15 candidates from around the world. Nkomo was the second South African to be elected to the World Scout Committee; Garnet de la Hunt was a member from 1996 to 2002 and held the post of Chairman of the committee.
Nkomo joined the Daveyton 7th Cub Scout
pack in 1957, when there were four separate associations for whites, coloureds, Indians and blacks whose association was called "Pathfinders". He was chairman for several years of the Daveyton Residents Committee, which had a projects committee that identified needs in the area and raised funds for development. One of the requests presented to the committee was by the Scouts. When their presentation failed to meet standards, Nkomo helped them re-work their presentation, resulting in the committee's decision to build a Scout hall
in the community. In 1991, he was approached by Colin Adcock, then chief executive of Toyota (one of Lindsay Smithers' clients) who had been asked to put together a marketing program for the South African Scout Association
. He made a presentation to a Scout conference, and was then asked to "rejoin the movement", as Assistant Chief Scout. "One of the reasons I agreed to return to Scouting was the challenge to take it back to the community. Scouting is a premium youth movement, there to enable us, especially now, to move towards healing this country, to train leaders and empower people."
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
is the group deputy chairman of FCB SA, South Africa's largest marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
group, and chairperson of the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (South Africa)
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa, is an independent entity organized and financed by members of the marketing communications industry of South Africa. Its purpose is to manage South Africa's voluntary, self-regulating system of advertising...
(ASA) of South Africa. He also served as one of 12 elected volunteer members of the World Scout Committee, the main executive body of the World Organization of the Scout Movement
World Organization of the Scout Movement
The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the Non-governmental international organization which governs most national Scout Organizations, with 31 million members. WOSM was established in 1920, and has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland...
. As an anti-apartheid student activist in the 1970s, he was one of the so-called "SASO nine
South African Students' Organisation
The South African Students' Organisation was a body of South African students who resisted apartheid through political action. The organization was formed in 1968, spearheaded by Steve Biko, and played a major role in the Black Consciousness Movement....
" imprisoned on Robben Island
Robben Island
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a...
for six years.
Nkomo speaks nine South African languages. "That came through living in the township, not through a formal program," says Nkomo. Nkwenkwe is Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
for "little boy", and Nkomo means "cow", so his name means "cowboy".
Nkomo always wears a signature fez perched on his head.
South African Students' Organisation
In the 1970s, Nkomo was active in opposition to the apartheid system in South Africa. He was a student leader in the South African Students' OrganisationSouth African Students' Organisation
The South African Students' Organisation was a body of South African students who resisted apartheid through political action. The organization was formed in 1968, spearheaded by Steve Biko, and played a major role in the Black Consciousness Movement....
(SASO), which broke away from the National Union of South African Students
National Union of South African Students
The National Union of South African Students was an important force for Liberalism in South Africa in the latter part of the last century...
(NUSAS), and a national organiser of the Black People's Convention
Black People's Convention
The Black People's Convention was founded at the end of 1972 as the Nationalist Liberatory Flagship of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.The BCM was a product of three historicultural and ideological imperatives:...
. He and eight other SASO leaders (known as the "SASO nine") were arrested in 1974 and charged with "conspiring to overturn the state by unconstitutional means". The Black Consciousness
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in...
leader Steve Biko
Steve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...
testified at length in his defence, a year before Biko was beaten to death by security policemen. The accused (including Strini Moodley
Strini Moodley
Strinivasa Rajoo "Strini" Moodley was a founding member of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa...
and Mosiuoa Lekota
Mosiuoa Lekota
Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota is a South African politician who currently serves as the President and Leader of the Congress of the People since 16 December 2008. Previously, under President Thabo Mbeki, he served in the Cabinet of South Africa as Minister of Defence from 17 June 1999 to 25...
) were convicted and sentenced to prison. Nkomo spent two years in prison while on trial and six years on Robben Island
Robben Island
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a...
, in the same prison as Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and many other anti-apartheid leaders.
Career in advertising
NN, as he is known to colleagues, is the group deputy chairman of FCB SA, South Africa's largest marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
group. When he was released from prison on 20 December 1982, Len van Zyl of what was then Lindsay Smithers took him on as a junior copywriter. He rose to creative director, a position he held for seven years, before being appointed group deputy chairman in 1995. His core functions center on corporate transformation, new business development, key client contacts and industry matters.
In 2007, Nkomo was appointed chairperson of the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (South Africa)
The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa, is an independent entity organized and financed by members of the marketing communications industry of South Africa. Its purpose is to manage South Africa's voluntary, self-regulating system of advertising...
(ASA) of South Africa. He is also the deputy chairperson of the 2010 National Communication Partnership for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...
which will be hosted in South Africa.
Scouting
He served two five-year terms as Chief Scout of South Africa, from 1996 to 2005, of which he says, "As Chief Scout I am chief servant". Nkwenkwe Nkomo was elected at the 37th World Scout Conference held September 2005 in Yasmine Hammamet, TunisiaTunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, for a six-year term, along with five other members from a field of 15 candidates from around the world. Nkomo was the second South African to be elected to the World Scout Committee; Garnet de la Hunt was a member from 1996 to 2002 and held the post of Chairman of the committee.
Nkomo joined the Daveyton 7th Cub Scout
Cub Scout
A Cub Scout is a member of the section of the worldwide Scouting movement for young persons, mainly boys normally aged about 7 to 11. In some countries they are known by their original name of Wolf Cubs and are often referred to simply as Cubs. The movement is often referred to simply as Cubbing...
pack in 1957, when there were four separate associations for whites, coloureds, Indians and blacks whose association was called "Pathfinders". He was chairman for several years of the Daveyton Residents Committee, which had a projects committee that identified needs in the area and raised funds for development. One of the requests presented to the committee was by the Scouts. When their presentation failed to meet standards, Nkomo helped them re-work their presentation, resulting in the committee's decision to build a Scout hall
Scout Hall
Scout Hall at Shibden near Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, was built in 1681 for John Mitchell ....
in the community. In 1991, he was approached by Colin Adcock, then chief executive of Toyota (one of Lindsay Smithers' clients) who had been asked to put together a marketing program for the South African Scout Association
South African Scout Association
The South African Scout Association is the World Organization of the Scout Movement recognized Scouting association in South Africa. Scouting began in the United Kingdom in 1907 through the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell and rapidly spread to South Africa, with the first Scout troops appearing in...
. He made a presentation to a Scout conference, and was then asked to "rejoin the movement", as Assistant Chief Scout. "One of the reasons I agreed to return to Scouting was the challenge to take it back to the community. Scouting is a premium youth movement, there to enable us, especially now, to move towards healing this country, to train leaders and empower people."
External links
- http://www.iem.co.za/embok3/speakers/nkwenkwe_nkomo.html