FASA: Franchise Association of Southern Africa

Founder & CEO at Club Engage and Board Member at The Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) When Genevieve Allen went looking for a business idea in 2012, she wasn’t scanning through spreadsheets from a corner office. She was in Spain, midway through a Masters in Business Innovation, chasing a hunch that South Africa was missing something obvious: professional, safeguarded aftercare for children once the school bell rings.

Pertunia Sibanyoni, Vice President Mobility Solutions and Marketing at Sasol and Immediate Past Chairperson at the Franchise Association of South Africa. Pertunia Sibanyoni’s career reads like a map of South African franchising itself, from working in the energy, banking and automotive sectors and back to the energy sector.

Mmenyana Ranku is General Manager of the Branded Retail Channel at MTN South Africa and serves as a Board Member of the Franchise Association of South Africa. Some lessons don’t come from a classroom. They come from the shop floor, during the lunch rush, when a brand’s promise is either kept or broken in minutes. That is where Mmenyana Ranku learned the fundamentals of her trade in a KFC, long before she took responsibility for one of South Africa’s largest retail transformation programmes.

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) and the Township Entrepreneurs Alliance (TEA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the SMME Support Programme, one of the most significant public-private partnerships in the country’s small-business landscape.

Johannesburg – The Franchise Association of South Africa used World Franchise Day to signal a clear change of direction. At an event in Johannesburg on 10 June 2026, hosted in partnership with ABSA, SME Entrepreneur, Msoho Consulting and Radio Pulpit, FASA announced a framework of seven new membership benefits that move the association beyond its traditional representative role into direct capability support for franchisors and franchisees.

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) contains extensive regulations prescribing terms and information that must be included in franchise agreements. However, although it had been raised in several cases that a franchise agreement that the parties had concluded omitted some of the prescribed details, in none of these cases had the courts declared outright that these omissions rendered the agreements void, or even that it afforded either of the parties the option of cancelling the agreement.

World Franchising Day is coming, and FASA is making it count. Every year, on the 11th of June, the global franchise community pauses to celebrate something remarkable: a business model that has turned ordinary people into business owners, and local brands into household names. World Franchising Day is not just a date on a calendar; it is a celebration of entrepreneurship, economic resilience, and the power of partnership.

The Power of Franchising is the theme for 2024 and FASA’s Franchise Manual that not only lists all its members and their franchise opportunities but has articles that reflect on the challenges facing the sector as well as guidelines on how to evaluate a franchise.

The importance of increased localised procurement and consumer spend will come under the spotlight at the Proudly South African Buy Local Summit & Expo, which is taking place in the backdrop of debilitating tariff hikes that the Donald Trump-led administration has slapped on South African exports to the United States.

Did you know that investors from the Gulf are actively seeking African brands and franchise opportunities? Will your business be ready when the opportunity comes? As part of the journey toward CEO Drawing Board 8.0 – Egyptian–Saudi International Franchise Expo (FRANEX 2026) in Cairo, we are hosting our second preparatory webinar to help African entrepreneurs prepare for investment and partnership opportunities with Saudi and Middle East investors.