The nature of the South African public relations industry

The public relations and event management industry in South Africa is generally a turf that only the fittest can survive.
There is scant information on the exact numbers of black-run service providers available in the market since the industry is dominated experienced companies. There is no room for emerging small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs).

The Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) the public relations industry regulating authority puts more emphasis on helping individuals and consultants with expertise in the field which in turn puts small companies at disadvantage.
The emerging companies have to struggle in order to get some jobs from both government and private.
Happy Nkhoma, managing director of Nandi Marketing, a Johannesburg-based event and public relations management company, says it was not easy to break into the industry because there are many companies competing for a slice in the area. He says perseverance and hard is the only hope if you want to make in this industry but it is possible.

Public relations and event management companies both old and new are fighting it out for tenders to provide the private and government sectors. The common cry among them is that government in particular takes too long to pay them after they have rendered services.
Nandi has taken the Gauteng Provincial Department to court for money the department has failed to pay.
Nkhoma says the industry consists of two groups of public relations and event management companies. There are those who get jobs on merit and the other group only gets tenders because they know people inside the government departments, says Nkhoma with grimace.
“It is a two way process. Whether you have been existing for a long time or are new makes no difference. I would not be wrong to say many companies that get tenders get them because they have strong connections in different sectors. Only a few get them because they possess necessary skills,” Nkhoma said.

The norm, according to Nkhoma, seemed like a service provider has to know someone to be able to get a contract.
“If you do not know someone who decides on the contracts you will find it very difficult to get one,” Nkhoma pointed out.
Black business in particular survives mainly from jobs they get from government The private sector prefers to give jobs white-owned established public relations agencies.

Emerging black public relations and event management entities are in many cases run by mainly young and less experienced people. Some are former journalists with less than the required experience and expertise to run them.
An experienced consultant in fundraising and communications who services a number of public relations and event management companies, said she believed the service providers and government as well as the private sectors are not familiar with the payment procedure.

“I think generally service providers to government and other sectors are not told how the process of payment is done. As a result of late payment many people running small businesses end up closing when the money does not come,” says the consultant, adding that the problem also applied to other sectors such as construction.
The South African government's Treasury says it has no say on agreements entered into between various departments and service providers for rendering services. A source within the Treasury said all departments have their own budgets, adding that it normally take 30 days for money to be paid to service providers once work has been done.