Business

Here is a list of South Africans going to Davos in 2016

Quinton Bronkhorst

 ·14 Jan 2016

There are 53 South Africans attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting being held in Davos next week, including eight government officials.

This accounts for nearly half of the 115 delegates attending from the African continent in total.

In 2015, 51 delegates from South Africa attended, including eight government officials. In 2014 the figure was 40 delegates, with 10 government officials.

The WEF’s annual meeting, held at the Swiss mountain resort of Davos from January 20-23, will bring together thousands of high-profile delegates in business, finance and governance from around the globe.

In 2016, President Jacob Zuma will once again be joined by seven other ministers, including minister of water and sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane; finance minister, Pravin Gordhan; and energy minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

Joining the government delegates are high profile CEOs and leaders from some of South Africa’s biggest companies and financial institutions, including Naspers chairman, Koos Bekker; Barclays Africa CEO, Maria Ramos, Nedbank chief exec Mike Brown and billionaire, Patrice Mostsepe.

The list of Davos attendees often bears scrutiny, particularly in terms of public representatives attending, as the costs involved are reportedly staggeringly high, costing between $20,000 and $50,000 per delegate.

South Africans are currently extremely sensitive to spending in dollars, following a crash in the currency that has pushed it to new lows versus the greenback.

At current exchange rates, it could cost between R330,000 and R830,000 to send a single delegate to the event, and with eight government officials, that bill could stretch as high as R6.6 million.

Here is the full list of South African attendees:

Government

State-run groups

Finance and Investment

Business leaders

Media

Other

More on Davos

Full list of South Africans attending Davos in 2015

Full list of South Africans at Davos 2014