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Speaker 1: Two days of bold ideas, powerful conversations and Proudly Local innovation.

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Speaker 1: The fourteenth By Local Summit and Expo live on seven

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Speaker 1: o two.

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Speaker 2: It's twelve minutes before ten o'clock. This is the seven

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Speaker 2: or two open line. We live at the Sentence Convention

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Speaker 2: Center where the fourteenth edition of the By Local Summit

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Speaker 2: and Expo is taking place. This is really a summit

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Speaker 2: that shines the spotlight on the sectors that carry an

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Speaker 2: impact on our.

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Speaker 3: Economy, on job creation as well.

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Speaker 2: Joining me now in our makeshift studio is Heppi Makuma Longhiti,

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Speaker 2: who is the chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Proudly

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Speaker 2: South African.

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Speaker 3: Happy, great to chat to you.

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Speaker 4: Good morning, good morning, good morning to you and the listeners.

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Speaker 2: So this is the fourteenth year of the BI Local Summit.

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Speaker 2: What has the Summit been able to achieve so far?

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Speaker 4: The Summit has been able to chew achieve great progress

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Speaker 4: and great strides in the lives of local businesses founders

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Speaker 4: of great products in South Africa. The growth is commendable.

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Speaker 4: The growth is evident and it has opened a lot

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Speaker 4: of doors for small businesses for isb and Ese in

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Speaker 4: South Africa. It has done great linkages between small businesses

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Speaker 4: and big businesses through the business matchmaking program we have

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Speaker 4: where big business is requested to come not only walk

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Speaker 4: the flaws, but really engage and also buy trade with

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Speaker 4: the small businesses that are in the room.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, what way are we trying to take it next?

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Speaker 2: I've been asking the listeners this morning how intentional they

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Speaker 2: are about buying local. And one of the things we

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Speaker 2: spoke about is how when you look at even the

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Speaker 2: global supply chain has been disrupted because of the global days,

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Speaker 2: and even more importantly, now you've got an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: really support small businesses and local businesses and.

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Speaker 4: And keep our pay attention to localization. Localization is going

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Speaker 4: to be a saving grace. In fact, it reminds me

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Speaker 4: of the COVID era, where you know, we in the

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Speaker 4: in the in the absence of imports and exports, we

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Speaker 4: were still okay as a people, you know, in terms

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Speaker 4: of things that we critically needed to.

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Speaker 3: Be able to survive.

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Speaker 4: And so what we are hoping to do with the

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Speaker 4: growth of the Summit and Export is to take it

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Speaker 4: to a space where you know, we can heavily rely

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Speaker 4: on locally manufactured products. Whatever happens in the world because

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Speaker 4: we don't know what tomorrow has in store for us

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Speaker 4: as an economy, and so we're hoping to take it

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Speaker 4: to a place where we can be you know, confident,

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Speaker 4: and we can survive with what we can manufacture locally

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Speaker 4: as South Africa.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, can you maybe explain to some of our our listeners.

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Speaker 2: We may not be aware of the impact of supporting

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Speaker 2: locally produced goods over important ones, how significant is it,

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Speaker 2: because you know people, some people think it's a matter

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Speaker 2: of just showing support for the local businesses, but actually

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Speaker 2: you're feeding homes. There are many jobs that get created,

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Speaker 2: and our economy.

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Speaker 4: Grows many many jobs. And you're right, some people think,

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Speaker 4: you know, ah has shame, let's support locally produced products.

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Speaker 4: It's not an a ha shame situation. It's a situation

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Speaker 4: where we are incredibly proud to showcase what it is

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Speaker 4: we do as a country and we can showcase this

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Speaker 4: globally without feeling apologetic about it. And also just to

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Speaker 4: remind listeners that when you and I make a conscious

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Speaker 4: decision to make our purchasing decision in favor of local products,

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Speaker 4: you are essentially assisting and helping in creating one more

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Speaker 4: job or sustaining the very jobs that we can't afford

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Speaker 4: to lose, and contributing to the venue chain and to

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Speaker 4: the ecosystem of any industry that you may be supporting,

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Speaker 4: whether it's furniture, whether it's FMCG, whether it's a beverage industry,

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Speaker 4: whether it's automotive, whatever it is that is made that

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Speaker 4: is locally manufactured.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the things that you know, South Africans

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Speaker 2: often raises that, yes, we want to support the local businesses,

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Speaker 2: but the price is often the deciding factor. So how

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Speaker 2: do you convince shoppers that buying local is worth it?

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Speaker 2: And I know there's an argument about someone is really

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Speaker 2: willing to go pay twenty thousand ran for a bag

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Speaker 2: you know, manufactured in America or in Europe, but when

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Speaker 2: you are here, you want to complain.

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Speaker 3: About a bag that is ten thousand rans. Yes, that

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Speaker 3: is equally.

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Speaker 4: Good, absolutely, if not better, if not better. And so

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Speaker 4: what we do say is that we are reminding South

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Speaker 4: Africans that everybody has a choice. I mean, we've been

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Speaker 4: asked somebody has been very ambitious in the past and

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Speaker 4: they asked us to ask Macros to change their business

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Speaker 4: model because they're too expensive. I was like my brother,

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Speaker 4: you can't afford Macros and.

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Speaker 3: It's okay, it's okay.

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Speaker 4: Not to afford Macros as somebody else. Well, but there's

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Speaker 4: other retail retailers that are that are selling at clothing

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Speaker 4: items that you and I can afford. That the pie

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Speaker 4: is too big for us to find our comfort, our

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Speaker 4: niche and and and it's all. It's really the reality

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Speaker 4: is that how deep is your pocket? You know, we

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Speaker 4: can't having we're having discussions about it is overly priced.

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Speaker 4: When you're okay to pay Dodgy in Gabanna fifty thousand

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Speaker 4: rand for a shirt and nobody questions him. You don't

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Speaker 4: even know that guy.

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Speaker 3: At least we know David so.

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Speaker 2: But but from your research at Proudly South African, your

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Speaker 2: observation has consumer behavior shifted in recent years? Are you

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Speaker 2: seeing more South Africans becoming conscious about supporting local businesses?

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Speaker 4: Clement Head, you asked me this question ten years ago,

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Speaker 4: I would have said, my brother, we have a problem.

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Speaker 4: And now I'm very happy. Pun intended to say that

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Speaker 4: we've come a long way. The mind shift change is evident.

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Speaker 4: The excitement about embracing locally manufactured products is palpable in

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Speaker 4: the country, you will still get that auntie and that uncle.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what you say to them. Are there's

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Speaker 3: always a problem.

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Speaker 4: But in the main, South Africans are really just warming

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Speaker 4: up to embracing locally manufactured products and the sales show it,

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Speaker 4: and all the touch points we use as proudly South

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Speaker 4: African that are relatable that our lifestyle driven. This is

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Speaker 4: why the one day you see us at Sona to

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Speaker 4: hold people accountable. This is why the one day you

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Speaker 4: see us around the local Fashion Police program on social

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Speaker 4: media platforms. This is why we are here. This is

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Speaker 4: why we do makelo and a festival, This is why

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Speaker 4: we do food trade shows and all of that to

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Speaker 4: show South Africans what we really mean when we say

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Speaker 4: local is le it. It's not a cliche, it's a lifestyle,

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Speaker 4: it's a reality.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Just lastly, there's a question that keeps coming up. Then

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Speaker 2: I'll read one now it says high clerment. Unfortunately, there

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Speaker 2: are so many companies that import from China and then

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Speaker 2: they pay for and slap on that proudly South African sticker.

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Speaker 2: I would like to know how stringent the criteria is

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Speaker 2: for granting of this and regulation thereof I see this

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Speaker 2: happening far too often in the contract furniture industry.

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Speaker 3: That's a question we got from Ken and.

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Speaker 4: The listener is on the money. We are aware that

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Speaker 4: there's people who do that. They just grab our logo

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Speaker 4: and the sticker from the internet and they import stuff

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Speaker 4: and they put us stick on it that says made

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Speaker 4: in South Africa or proudly South African. Our sticker is

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Speaker 4: a trademark. We have a responsibility to play the police.

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Speaker 4: So what we do encourage people to do is that

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Speaker 4: when you come across that kind of a somebody being

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Speaker 4: naughty and doing that, tell on them. We will then

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Speaker 4: engage them. What we do we don't fight people because

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Speaker 4: at times people don't know they do it, you know,

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Speaker 4: because they don't know. At times people take chances. They

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Speaker 4: do know and they'll take a chance and we we

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Speaker 4: we we engage them and we say come and join

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Speaker 4: the movement. This is the process to follow. We're very

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Speaker 4: strict with criteria. We look at local content, we look

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Speaker 4: at quality, we look at environmental standards and labor laws.

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Speaker 3: Do you conform to all of.

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Speaker 4: That, then you you are you know, then you can

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Speaker 4: join the campaign and you have card blunts to use.

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Speaker 4: Then the logo on your marketing material.

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Speaker 2: Yes see happy Makum Loki, Chief Marketing and Communications, obviously

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Speaker 2: proudly so Al African.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much for me.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much, my brother.

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Speaker 2: It's fourteen minutes before ten. Out lack communit DC, Stephen Aka,

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Speaker 2: I see your calls.

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Speaker 3: I'll come to them.

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Speaker 1: The Clement Mynn Tella Show is live from the Santin

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Speaker 1: Convention Center for the Bilocal Summit and Expo, hosted by

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Speaker 1: Broadly South African on seven O two.

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Speaker 3: It's eleven minutes