The 2017 edition of the World Economic Forum on Africa returns to South Africa this week. This exclusive club of jet-setting haves of this world, better known globally for its annual January get-togethers in Davos on the Swiss Alps, is set to descend on Durban on the altruistic mission to "help Africa achieve inclusive growth".
The WEF is scheduled to start in Durban tomorrow. The meeting will discuss initiatives aimed at fostering inclusive economic growth in Africa.
More than 1 000 business, civil society and government leaders – including 10 heads of state – from more than 100 countries and 620 organisations will attend this year.
President Jacob Zuma, along with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba, is expected to welcome the delegates officially.
Leaders from other countries who will attend include: Edgar Chagwa Lungu, President of Zambia; Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius; Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, Prime Minister of Gabon; Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, Prime Minister of Namibia; Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe; Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of Uganda; King Mswati III, King of Swaziland; Macky Sall, President of Senegal; Wolfgang Schäuble, German Federal Minister of Finance; and Brigitte Zypries, German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy.
It is quite fitting that this meeting returns to South Africa, a country of stark contradictions where millions of have-nots live in squalor and deprivation, often a stone's throw away from a few living in the lap of luxury, and to Southern Africa, the most unequal region on the continent.
The men and women in sharp suits at Durban's International Convention Centre this week will be reminded that all their efforts will come to nought if the three related and mutually reinforcing developmental challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment - are not tackled hands on!
