SA Rocks

A great magazine that I have contributed to numerous times has recently redesigned their website. I am really glad that they have eventually redesigned the site because I like their content and their angle.
SA Promo pitches itself as an expats SA portal for information, news, content and more online and in print in the UK. It’s a great magazine that serves its purpose over in the UK.

I have blogged about SA Promo before and am chuffed that they are on the up and up and getting on with their business in such difficult times financially.

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Most people who are in touch with online shopping in South Africa will definitely have heard about this fantastic business: Yuppiechef. They sell premium kitchen tools and were the winners of the SA E-commerce awards, Best Home and Garden Category, for 2007.

So I’m not going to go on about how fabulous they are, as most people already know that,but I thought I’d rather tell you about some of their great products and special offers.

I’ll start with their Mode Fridge Clock. It’s a rubber clock that sticks magnetically to your fridge door. Innovative! It bends to the shape of a curved door, and comes in a number of colours (although for the rest of 2008 it’s black only). I like a lot!

Then there’s the Mode Goo Placemat and Coaster Set. They’re fun, functional and, because they’re made from silicone, are highly resistant to heat. The perfect Christmas gift I’m thinking?

A special is being run on Jamie Oliver’s latest cookbook: Ministry of Food. The site says, “From beginners to old pros, Jamie’s promise is that you’ll be whipping up great dinners within hours of reading his book”. With every book bought you get a free Jamie Oliver speed peeler.

Then there’s the Mode Sticklebook – perfect for holding your new Ministry of Food. It’s a book storage unit that makes it seem as if your books are suspended on your wall without support. Now that’s clever…

And finally, Yuppiechef have a Christmas special on the KitchenAid Artisans Stand Mixer. With this 300W mixer (available in tons of colours) you’ll receive a free copy of the Mixer Bible Recipe Book.

I think it’s time you get shopping. Enjoy!

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I think it’s time I tell you about my online shop, Babazeka. If you’ve been a fan of SA Rocks for a while now, you would have read about us here exactly a year ago when we first launched. We’ve come a long way since then, in fact, have recently re-launched a new shop interface and changed the way our system works too.

In a nutshell, Babazeka is a channel through which social upliftment projects, who produce handmade things, can reach a wider market. We display photo’s and descriptions of their products, show you pictures of the people who’ve put their time and energy into making them, and tell you the story behind the project that you’re supporting. It’s all about creating as much exposure as we can for the people in South Africa who have such amazing skills but who battle with getting their products out there.

Previously we were buying their stock up front, but this just meant that we couldn’t grow the business fast enough. The way we’re working now means that customers have to a wait a little longer for their products to be made, but it also means that we can support many more projects, especially more of the smaller guys.

Our range has grown a lot. We’ve got things like bags, cushion covers, jewellery, fun home decor pieces and only for a few weeks longer, christmas decorations.

More recently, I’ve been working on a range known as Babazeka Designs, whereby I’ve worked with crafters to design unique products for the site. This first range has a retro 70′s feel, where I’ve used bold patterns and designs, and a number of techniques and materials which were popular in this era, such as patchwork, leather and crochet.

You can read more about our experiences of growing the business on our blog, and can have a browse around our online shop here. I really hope you like what you see!

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Social-spending (not sure if that’s a new phrase, if it is, I claim it) has hit the SA blogosphere. Springleap, the very cool online t-shirt company, has initiated a very cool new concept.

If you head over to Springleap.com and buy something using the code

SARocks

you’ll get a fantastic 10% discount on your purchase.

This is a very innovative way to give back to readers of specific websites and blogs while generating sales, traffic and awareness for their brand. I am very impressed and chuffed with the initiative.

I have blogged about Springleap before but really just couldn’t help myself again!

Be sure to remember to use the code “SARocks” when you make your purchase. For a bit of a tester here are some funky, hip, different designs from Springleap:

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Single emergency number by 2009 – Plans to introduce a single emergency number which South Africans can use to call for help from anywhere in the country are at an advanced stage, the Department of Communications says.

SA translation project selected by Google – Translate.org.za has had two of its projects included in the Google Summer of Code.

South Africa-based Translate.org.za is a localisation organisation working to translate free software into all South African languages. As part of its work the organisation produces a range of tools to aid in language translation and it is two of these that have been selected as part of the Summer of Code.

1 Million South Africans marching against crime – show your support for the March taking place in Mid-April against crime in SA.

South Africa Middle Class Youth Views on Politics – The middle class youth of SA need a voice!

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I was chatting to a friend of mine last night about Facebook. We’re doing a story for FM Campus about start-ups and making money, business plans and ideas online.

We came to a conclusion. Society is fairly messed up. We couldn’t decide is Facebook has created a stunning success from the “Gifts” or if society has downgraded itself to a pseudo-existence.

I am pushing toward the latter. What is wrong with people (especially locals) who spend money, US$1 or US$10, any money in fact, on purchasing a gift from Facebook (FB) for a friend? What are you thinking?

What is the purpose of these gifts? If you give your mate a sandwich that cost you US$1 they can’t eat when they receive it, they can’t smell the roses you sent them, pop the balloon, eat the cupcake or do anything with any of the gifts they’ve ever received. Ever. So what’s the point?

In my mind there are two reasons for this sort of insanity. Firstly you think that Mark Zuckerberg is such an incredible fellow that you would like to give him your money, so you buy a gift for someone. Or secondly society has sunk to such lows that we need to parade gif-file gifts on a FB profile page to make ourselves look cool in our cyber-existence. Again I think I lean to the latter and that concerns me a lot.

So for today I am happy that I am South African, that the exchange-rate is too high for me to be willing to pass through a R10 purchase on my credit card to Facebook to place a roll of toilet paper gift on my best mates profile page. Nonsense I tell you.

I am still interested to know how many South Africans are spending money on gifts. I think I might be scarily surprised at the number.

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Rikus sent me an email a few days back. He runs a project/website called Charity Wines. The concept is a simple one and one that I like. You buy wine, they deliver and money goes to charity. Easy huh? Yep it is.

You can have a look at who benefits when you buy wine here.

Let’s have Rikus explain things a bit more:

Hi Rikus, Welcome to SA Rocks. I love the idea behind Charity Wines. Tell me a bit about where the concept came from?

Thank you. As you might know, there are a number of grassroots charities out there doing fantastic work. Time and time again we find that their greatest concern is financial stability. They simply do not get enough funding and support from the government and therefore they are forced to make applications to corporate South Africa for their survival.

My partner and I were driving through the winelands of the Breede River valley after a visit to one such organisation when the idea occurred to us to create a sustainability model for charities in the winelands. We simply decided to ask the wine producers of our country to make some of their marketing wine available which we then sell to the public. The funds raised are then made available to organisations in the fields of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and severe learning difficulty. We approached the governing bodies of the Wine Industry for their endorsements and then we set out to build the infrastructure needed to pull this off. Before long we accquired the services of Mondi Packaging, The Vineyard Connection and Cluver Markotter Lawyers who all pleged their support pro bono as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

Engelbrecht/Els got the ball rolling by sending us some lovely wine and the rest is history. We have close on 50 farmers pledging wine to the Trust on a monthly basis and more are joining all the time. It is important to notice that the farmers are donating their wine free of charge.

Do you deliver outside of Western Cape?

We deliver to every corner of South Africa courtesy of The Vineyard Connection and Cross Cape. Westen Cape deliveries take approximately 24 hours and deliveries country wide can take up to 3 days.

How many people are involved in the project?

The Charity Wines Trust has 3 trustees whilst we acquired the services of a retired partner of Wine of the Month Club pro bono who manages strategic parts of the operation. Then there are the Industry’s gurus, the wine farms, implementation partners, media partners and a whole host of individuals who support the project in some way or another.

Is it purely an online venture?

Although buying online is the easiest, it is not purely online. People often call us once they learn of Charity Wines and order over the phone. Most customers simply join on a monthly basis by means of a debit order.

Can people get involved more than simply a donation? Is there an option for hands on assistance?

We often take guests to some of our beneficiaries but essentially Charity Wines is a fundraiser for charities and not a grassroots organisation per se. Having said that, we are working on a volunteer program whereby we would like international volunteers to stay on the beautiful wine farms whilst giving their time to interact with the community and talk to the people about the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices and the dangers of alcohol use during pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a HUGE problem in South Africa, worse than anywhere in the world and the more prevention campaigns there are, the better.

What are the growth plans for the project?

We are aiming to grow our Farm Members pool significantly whilst building our sales to approximately 500 per month by October 2008. Upon achieving this we will be in a position to make charitable grants of R1 million annualy.

How well is it all doing? How many bottles of wine do you deliver and registrations do you get per month, for example?

We are pleased with the growth of the brand. We started trading last year and sell between 80 and 90 boxes of wine per month currently. I find that at least 3 farms join per month.

Let’s summarise things clearly for potential “buyers” of Charity Wines. When you buy a box of wine for R250 you are essentially making a donation to a charitable trust which is governed by legislation to implement the funds according to the objectives of the trust. The wine, which gets delivered to your door (in SA), is of top quality and always exceed the amount paid by the customer. This is the perfect gift for Father’s day, Mother’s day, Valentine’s, any occasion really. Your folks receive superb wine and your money goes to very worthwhile and transparent causes.

Please go to our site, see who’s donating and where your money goes and support this project.
Send us a mail at rikus@heartofhealing.org.za and reception@heartofhealing.org.za, order online or call (021) 442 9600

Thanks for taking the time out to chat with me, Hope that the project takes off!

Thank you very much and thanx for your website! SA really needs all the positivity we can get because, as you allready know: SA Rocks!!!

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Babazeka is a project that I am extremely envious of and I think that Scott and Sarah are going to do great things in the online sales space. Before I spill the beans lets hear what Sarah has to say:

What exactly is Babazeka and how did it come about?

Babazeka is an online store that’s all about social upliftment in South Africa. Basically, we sell handmade goods which have been produced by businesses/organisations which are empowering previously disadvantaged peoples. It came about for a few reasons. I wanted a company of my own that I could be passionate about (I love creativity and people), and that would have a higher purpose than pure monetary profit. I’m also tired of people being so negative about South Africa – I wanted to do something positive.

Do you think that there is a market for what you are selling and what exactly are you selling?

Absolutely. Nothing we sell is run-of-the-mill and I think people will appreciate that. There’s a trend at the moment, moving towards handmade goods and away from those that are mass-produced. Also, people are becoming more and more socially and environmentally aware – all of our products empower the people that need it, and most are environmentally friendly too. Our range on Babazeka is made up of fashion accessories and home decor items. Things like handbags, cushion covers, clocks, etc. All innovative, unique and beautiful!

Are you targeting the local or international market? Or both perchance?

We’re starting off by focusing on the South African market – until we’re sure that the operation of the site and our logistics are all running smoothly. We hope to start selling internationally early to mid 2008 – foreigners will go crazy for our suppliers’ products.

How difficult was it to set up payment methods? I hear that SA struggles with that sort of thing.

The process was a little complicated with the integration of a payment gateway into our website, but Virtual Card Services (who we’ve been using), have been more than helpful . The most difficult part of the process is acquiring your merchant number. If you have a long-standing relationship with a certain bank, it definitely helps!

Why didn’t you just start a real-life store? Why online?

Truthfully, the start-up capital was the initial reason to start an online store. One of the main goals of Babazeka is to eventually have a physical outlet, but online is a far more affordable option for a start-up business. Plus, my cousin Scott knows a thing or two about online marketing, so when he agreed to get involved it all made a lot of sense.

You clearly love SA after looking at Babazeka. What’s your driving force? What inspires you?

South Africa is my driving force. I travelled for a few years, and not once did I consider the option of not coming back. This place has a feeling about it like no other. Something that comes from our people. I know it has its problems, they’re kind of difficult to ignore, but I think the only way it’s going to improve is by young people with energy and ideas to use them for the benefit of the country.

I’m inspired by kindness, I suppose. It’s something I feel many fellow South Africans need, after such a difficult past. In a creative sense, I’m inspired by colour and innovative design – all of the products we are selling depict exactly this.

What sort of marketing plans do you have for the site? Can we expect a viral video or something different?

Loads of plans, too little time! From a video point of view, we’re currently putting together profiles of each of our suppliers so that our customers can associate with them and, hopefully, create a really meaningful connection with the product they buy. That’s the way we want to approach things – give our customers a story to tell their friends about the beautiful bag or cushion they just bought. It’s African Storytelling 2.0

How did you get involved online? Tell me a bit about yourself.

Basically, it’s what I mentioned before. I had the idea for the business, and the urge to help empower South Africans, but it was only when Scott became my business partner that I was introduced to the online world. Honestly, I had no idea of the extent of it until about six months ago. I suppose a lot of South Africans have a long way to go in this regard – especially in terms of online retail. I live in Knysna, which offers me an incredible quality of life, but didn’t offer quite what I was needing in terms of careers. An online venture is an ideal form of business from a town like this. It provides far more opportunity for growth and stimulation.

Is there anything else you’d like to add in closing? Go wild…

We have a blog (blog.babazeka.com) which is starting to grow nicely. We talk about our suppliers, as well as our experiences of running a business like this. There’s something for everyone – entrepreneurs, designers, people into crafts.

And the the last thing I’ll mention is the actual word “Babazeka”. It’s Zulu and it means “be admirable” or “be beautiful”. It’s what we’re all about!

I wish Sarah and Scott all the success in the world (and I mean the world) with Babazeka. Do yourself a favour and buy from their site. Your relatives will love the products and will love it that you helped people survive by supporting Babazeka!

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In case anyone noticed this evening I tried desperately to upgrade to WordPress v2.3. I was not successful and in fact I was pretty damn useless.

Thankfully Justin came to the rescue and helped me out with database backups and the like. Unfortunately I am a chop and neglected to backup up some very specific files that I have now lost. This includes some plugin code that I have now lost.

Plugins are quite a mission to get done and dusted with the new WP. You need to ensure that you DEACTIVATE ALL PLUGINS before installation of v2.3 as many plugins are not compatible. I was going to make use of Ultimate Tag Warrior but WP v2.3 has a built in tag generator. Again, unfortunately, I am being some what ridiculous and am struggling to get those to display.

I have almost replaced or upgraded all of my plugins as well as 98% of the code that i didn’t backup. Let me know what your take on the upgrade has been.

So now the installation has been completed, plugins done but I seem to be having issues with the theme for SA Rocks. Most of the people I have asked have given me the same answer to my problem. The problem: The SA Rocks theme doesn’t work particularly well in Internet Explorer. The answer from those I’ve asked for help: We use Mac, we don’t have Internet Explorer.

This is my problem too. I didn’t notice that the SA Rocks theme was screwy because at home and at work I run FireFox. I have been struggling desperately to sort out my IE problems but I think I have failed. If you are using IE and can see the problem (I can’t right now, no IE) then please let me know if you have a solution to my problem.

I hope I will get the problem sorted out as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

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I know that there is going to be a lot of content floating around on the web in SA today, tomorrow and now this week with SA Rocks.

I am going to be blogging heritage-centric content for the next week. Hopefully it wont be boring, hopefully we’ll spark some interest, debate and reflection – but not too much reflection if you don’t want to!

The Sunday Times has an insert this week in there paper focusing on Heritage and have launched a website to match their print ideas – not sure about the situation of their website is at the moment but give it a try and see what pops up!

Then iCommons has initiated their project titled iHeritage. This is without a doubt one of the coolest online convergence projects that I have seen from any organisation in the world.

From the iHeritage website:

The aim is simple – to build an online repository of South African culture and heritage – as lived in the day-to-day lives of ordinary South Africans, to be added to the growing collection of indigenous content on Wikimedia Commons.

This is a really incredible project in my humble patriotic opinion. This collection of data, of history, is invaluable to us and our past here in SA. You can upload content in various ways such as:
Wikimedia Commons and Flickr. If you are going to use Flickr you need to tag your photos with South Africa and iHeritage. Simple.

But if you are the kind of person who likes to contribute on a face to face platform then get down to Rosebank in JHB NOW! You only have 2 hours left to contribute at the event in The Mall of Rosebank so make it count and get down there. If not, stick to the online areas I’ve mentioned above. This is a great project to follow up so keep a look out for new developments.

Coming up this week: I take a look at Sunday Times’ special Heritage insert. I will be analysing heritage, what it means and if I am truly African in spite of or because of who I am and where I’m from.

This should be an interesting and challenging blogging week for me here on SA Rocks. If you have anything to add to my week of heritage please email me and let me know your thoughts or suggestions.

Note: I would love someone from the iHeritage event to send me a blog post about how the iHeritage event was received and how successful it was! Do It guys, do it!!

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