With many across Sandton feeling the economic pressure experienced at petrol pumps, and at cashier tellers – it will surprise many to learn that, statistically, South Africa’s not in a bad position at all.

This is according to José Torres and Gonzalo Vilar – two expert executives from Bloom Consulting who revealed the 2024 South Africa global reputation study findings at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) building on April 26.

Torres and Vilar outlined the key findings of the research, which covered five brand dimensions of repute: investment, tourism, exports, talent and general.

The study revealed that the Middle East and fellow African countries hold South Africa to be more reputable than this nation is perceived by Europe and the Americas.

Torres outlined the methodology of the scope of the study, which was conducted using over 10,000 surveys in building the three sets of data accumulated for the study.

“It is important because from them we understand what the world is thinking about South Africa and the latest information the world is looking into about South Africa, and how this impacts the perception,” said Torres. “When people search, what they find influences perception. The combination of these three data sets is what we’re presenting here today in the form of the SA global reputation study.”

Further revelations included an increased willingness to visit, invest in, export from and work in South Africa; and that South Africa is becoming known for more than just Nelson Mandela.

The overall finding of the study is that South Africa has a moderate positive perception across the globe, with a 13% increase in positive perception points achieved between 2022 and 2024.

However, South Africa scores quite low when it comes to perceptions surrounding safety, the study showed.

“Safety, security and crime are the perception elements that South Africa has to work on, mainly; especially in Europe and the Americas, as they are important markets for South Africa,” said Vilar. “We see that there is a reduction of the gap between perception and reality. It has decreased, which is good news meaning the perceptions are more in line with reality.

“But there’s still work to be done, and much can be done on the influence side – shaping that digital identity will certainly contribute to that,” Vilar said.

A panel discussion followed the global study feedback, moderated by the programme director at the event, Fifi Peters. She was joined on stage by Brand SA acting CEO Sithembile Ntombela, South African Tourism chief marketing officer Thembisile Sehloho, DP World sub-Saharan head of corporate affairs Esha Mansingh, Department of Trade and Industry investment promotion acting head Yunus Hoosen, and Dr Stavros Nicolaou from Aspen.

The latest reputation study revealed reassuring results, providing Sandton and South Africa with valuable insight into the country’s global reputation.