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Sorry to be the ones to tell you this, but the South African Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) Forum has pulled out of the Massmart Development Fund’s advisory board, on the alleged grounds that it is "dysfunctional", that government participation has been negligible and that Massmart has not been forthcoming with the info needed for the board to do its job. You will recall that the board was set as an advisory structure for the R240m Massmart Development Fund, established at the behest of the Competition Appeal Court as a precondition for the merger we rather cleverly called “Wakro” back in the day. According to Massmart they have been in compliance with all requirements, including regular report-backs to the Competition Commission, and an annual report on supplier development progress and future plans.

Comment: Tricky, and we hope it’s all ironed out sharpish, and amicable relations resumed.

SA’s most dapper retailer, you will recall, struck up sometime last year a relationship, or indeed a transaction, with The Voice’s most dapper judge, and it was a match made in loyalty heaven. Woolies WRewards “Are you with us?” campaign, fronted by coolest person in the history of the world, ever, Pharrell Williams has just been awarded Best Loyalty Programme Marketing Campaign of the Year at the 2016 International Loyalty Magazine Awards. The campaign enticed customers to join Woolworths sustainability journey and “make sustainability cool” for the next generation of South Africans, raising R400k for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital along the way and established the “R100 Million for Education” drive, together with MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet.

Comment: Nice one, Woolies, especially since it was all conceived and conducted in-house.

Since Paul Polman, or “St Paul” as he is known here at Tatler Towers, with barely a speck of irony, took the reins at Unilever six years ago, he has delivered value to shareholders to the tune of 200%. Central to his stewardship has been the belief that brands and indeed business can be a source of social and environmental good, expressed in a sustainable living plan the objective of which is "to grow our business while decoupling our environmental footprint from our growth and increasing our positive social impact". Fair enough, but is he any good as a poet? We like a bit of poetry with our spreadsheets. Too many businesses, says Polman, run their businesses "by the light of the passing ships. We do better to be guided by the light of the stars."

Comment: We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Well not much, anyway.

Coca-Cola bottling outfit Sabco is aiming to do the right thing by Africa’s disadvantaged – particularly women and youth – in a bold new initiative aimed at creating opportunities for these groups through employment and training. A major part of Coca-Cola’s distribution model is assistance for tens of thousands of micro-enterprises, which are given start-up iceboxes and beverages. Coca-Cola sees its investments in Africa as central in this, and its investments on the thirsty continent are indeed impressive, with $17bn earmarked for investments in distribution, infrastructure, manufacturing and marketing during this decade, and $130m dropped on a new plant in Mozambique just the other day, capable of churning out 28.6m plastic bottle cases and 14.3m glass bottle cases per year.

Comment: The bullish approach in Africa of businesses like Coca-Cola is indeed heartening.

With the dear old ZAR hanging in at 15 something to the dollar and economic growth in negative territory, what further depredations might we expect from Brexit? Perhaps a 0.1% reduction in GDP, which after all is no big deal, except see economic growth, above, as investment spending from and exports to a slowing UK economy both decline. And ongoing volatility in the currency markets is never good for the rand, see also above, which means continued high prices for imports in our consumer-driven economy and further pressure on households. On the upside, there’s an outside chance that all of this uncertainty might stay the hand of the Reserve Bank when it comes to deliberating the next rate hike, although various experts have said that they’ll probably do what they’re going to do, Brexit be damned.

Comment: Otherwise, we should be fine.

The Kellogg’s Company, best known for breakfast staples (well not actual staples, no, obviously), has just launched a venture fund for investment in food and related technology businesses. Known as Eighteen94, the year the parent business was founded, the fund will target businesses turning over $5m-$10m a year in sectors from natural foods to marketing.

And the prize for Entrepreneur of the Year goes to…company man and head of SA’s biggest dairy business Johann Vorster, of, of course, Clover. Vorster joined dairy co-op NCD in 2000  with a reputation as a disrupter before that was even a word, participating in its incorporation as Clover Industries in 2003, its listing in 2010 and its conscious uncoupling from Danone. All of this and more has earned him a spot as finalist in Ernst & Young’s Global Entrepreneur Awards, to be held in Monaco. We’ll keep you posted.