The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies — in association with BCX — sees industry leaders come together to celebrate the JSE-listed companies that have delivered the highest returns for their shareholders over the past five years.

"We're very excited to confirm GG Alcock as our keynote speaker, says Sunday Times editor Bongani Siqoko. "His expertise and experience within South Africa's informal business sector — working in townships and understanding the drivers of this very active economy — is undoubtedly going to provide valuable insights for an audience more accustomed to transacting in boardrooms." 

"It's also very appropriate at a time where our economy needs to empower small business owners," adds Siqoko. Alcock's upbringing as a white man during the apartheid era was anything but conventional: his parents and siblings lived in poverty-stricken Msinga in Kwazulu Natal.

The family lived in a mud hut without a supply of electricity or running water. His experience of growing up as a white Zulu man was captured in his autobiographical first book, Third World Child, White Born, Zulu Bred.

In his second book, KasiNomics (regarding African informal economies and the people who inhabit them), Alcock provides insight into the informal economy and inclusivity in South Africa. Alcock is also the founder and CEO on Minanawe Marketing. 

Multilingual with Zulu-fluency, as well as being conversant in most ethnic South African languages, Alcock is a regular contributor and speaker on a range of topics, including:
  • motivational and trend talks on entrepreneurship
  • the informal market
  • diversity and culture in our society
  • marketing communications to the mass market
  • route to market strategies for the informal sector
Apart from recognising the top-performing companies, the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards also aim to recognise outstanding individual contributions to South African business and the economy.

The Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year Award is considered the ultimate accolade. Recipients are decided on by CEOs of the Sunday Times top 100 companies from the previous year.

Former recipients include:
  • Lesetja Kganyago
  • Pravin Gordhan
  • Johan van Zyl
  • Michael Jordaan
  • Phuthuma Nhleko
  • Johann Ruper
  • Brian Joffe
  • Graham Mackay
  • Maria Ramos
  • Adrian Gore
  • Whitey Basson
  • Dr Christo Wiese
The results of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies will be published in the Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday, 10 November.

For more information, visit www.tisoblackstar.com.