Vol 31, No 1 (2012)

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is a central bank. It is the public institution responsible
for managing the South African monetary policy. Any decisions taken by the bank and how these
decisions are communicated affect all the participants in the economic activity of the country.
This study undertook a thematic analysis of the media releases, monetary policy statements
and SARB Governors’ speeches delivered between 2008 and 2009. It revealed that the SARB,
through having achieved a relatively high level of economic and policy transparency, achieved
lower procedural and political transparency. The results also indicate that, despite there being an
increased demand for the accountability of organisations to a broad spectrum of stakeholders,
the SARB directs most of its communications to only a relatively limited group of stakeholders.

This study aimed to discover what specific beliefs of students at a South African university
should be addressed when trying to persuade them to go for HIV counselling and testing (HCT).
The participants were 113 students from a previously disadvantaged university. The students
completed a questionnaire that included questions about participants’ HCT intentions and about
possible predictors of such intentions. Students’ HCT intention proved to be positively related to
their perception of having control over their HCT behaviour (self-efficacy), and to their perception
of social pressure towards going for HCT (perceived norm). The students’ belief that they would
not be either too afraid or too stressed to go for HCT contributed positively to their self-efficacy,
as did the belief that they would be able to deal with the possibly disadvantageous outcome of the
HIV test. The students’ belief that their parents would approve of their going for HCT proved to be
a strong and positive predictor of their perceived norm. Furthermore, perceived susceptibility to
HIV/AIDS was positively related to HCT intention, and stigmatising attitude towards people living
with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) was negatively related to HCT intention. These outcomes suggest
that in trying to convince black students in South Africa to go for HCT, developers of promotion
messages should focus on students’ susceptibility to HIV, on how to deal with the possibility
that their parents might not approve of their going for HCT, and on how to cope with a possibly
disadvantageous test outcome.

What is described as ‘a major leap of faith’ by producer Danie Odendaal (Labuschagne, 2010:
62) has turned out to be somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. For one, 7de Laan was, at the
time of the study, the most popular Afrikaans soap in that it reached a bigger audience than any
other Afrikaans soap, such as Binneland2 (M-Net and KykNET)3 and Villa Rosa (kykNET) (TVSA,
2010). It further held its own in the fiercely competitive timeslot of 18:30 during which two other
soaps, namely Isidingo (SABC 3)4 and Rhythm City (e.tv), were then broadcast. The soap has
also received the Voters’ Choice Award for best soap opera two years’ running at the South African
Film and Television Awards, thereby confirming its popularity. Although initially commissioned for
the upper-income category (De Lange, 2007: 3), 7de Laan now has a much wider audience
base, which includes viewers from different socio-economic, racial and language groups. Using
reception analysis as point of departure, this study used in-depth interviews with a cross-cultural
sample of viewers to describe the appeal of 7de Laan.

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So often we seem to speak in abstracts about marketing. We may all nod our heads when it
comes to the importance of the basics of digging and delving into the marketplace and thoroughly
researching the competition and looking at trend analyses. When we moreover talk about the
importance of positioning our brand and differentiating it by means of both an impactful name and
packaging that really do express the brand’s character, its DNA, we may all nod our heads again.