GG Alcock
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SPEAKER DETAILS
Guest Speaker GG Alcock was born in Msinga, then one of the most poverty-stricken and violent parts of KwaZulu-Natal. GG’s activist parents, Neil and Creina Alcock, raised their two sons in a mud hut with no running water, electricity or modern conveniences and they grew up like young Zulu boys. Zulu reared and bred, the boys learnt the essence of how to survive in a harsh world – valuable skills that have undoubtedly contributed to GG’s success as an entrepreneur.
GG has been at times a shebeen owner, political activist, community worker, African adventurer and successful businessman. He is fluent in Zulu and conversant in most South African ethnic languages.
In 1999, GG founded Minanawe Marketing, an activations business which pioneered marketing to township and informal mass markets in South Africa. After selling Minanawe, GG founded Kasinomics an advisory service providing insights, strategies, route to market and consumer marketing to the informal & kasi consumer and business sectors. Kasinomics is also invested in several township and informal sector focused startups.
GG considers himself an Economic Activist, excavating the silence and opening eyes to the invisible economies of our cities, kasi’s and rural homelands. He advocates for government and formal business sector recognition, support, empowerment and consideration of the informal economy and the kasipreneurs who represent the future for our economic growth.
GG’s book KasiNomics: African Informal Economies and the People Who Inhabit Them casts a light on the invisible matrix at the heart of South Africa’s informal economies and the people who live in them. KasiNomics takes you down rural pathways, weaves between claustrophobic mazes of shacks, joins gogo in a stokvel, among many more people and places.
GG’s next book KasiNomic Revolution: African Informal Economies explores the revolution taking place in the great marketplaces of the informal sector. The informal business sector is the next great frontier of Africa and it is undergoing an economic revolution – a new world of small people doing big things, transforming the continent. The future of African economic activity.
You may have read GG’s books about the kasi economy, his book; Born White Zulu Bred tells his story and that of many of his people – a literary journey of a third world tribal society following his journey from the mud hut he was raised in and the tribal forces that shaped him, to the dynamic world of KasiNomics.
GG is a thought leader and commentator on the trends and dynamics of the informal economies & societies which make up the majority of South Africa. He is a regular speaker on a range of topics – from business to motivational to trend talks on subjects including entrepreneurship, the informal market, diversity and culture, marketing communications to the mass market and the route to market strategies for the informal sector.
KasiNomics Unleashed
In this powerful and engaging keynote, GG Alcock takes audiences into South Africa’s township and informal economy — a vast, fast-moving and often overlooked space where millions of people build livelihoods and businesses outside the formal system.
Drawing on decades of firsthand experience, he shares grounded, real-world stories of township and rural entrepreneurship. From kota outlets, bakeries and taverns to spaza shops, backyard rentals, street traders and rural trading networks, these remarkable examples show how everyday South Africans are building sustainable businesses in challenging environments, often without formal funding or infrastructure.
Blending storytelling with practical insight, KasiNomics Unleashed challenges traditional assumptions about unemployment, entrepreneurship and economic growth. It reveals the scale, structure and importance of the informal economy, highlighting it as one of South Africa’s most significant and dynamic growth frontiers.
Rather than focusing on theory, the keynote brings this economy to life through lived experience and on-the-ground examples, showing how business really works for most South Africans.
More than a business talk, it is a human story of hustle, innovation and resilience. It offers audiences a fresh perspective on South Africa and leaves them with a deeper understanding of the creativity, adaptability and opportunity that exist beyond the formal economy.
Ideal for conferences, leadership events and organisations seeking an authentic South African perspective on business, entrepreneurship and growth.
