Here’s the full list of South Africans going to Davos in 2018

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting is set to take place on 23 to 26 January 2018, where the theme for the year will be creating a shared future in a fractured world.

The 48th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, will host 3,000 participants across all stakeholder groups including public & private sectors, civil society, academia, media, and arts & culture.

“The global context has changed dramatically: geostrategic fissures have re-emerged on multiple fronts with wide-ranging political, economic and social consequences,” the group said.

“Realpolitik is no longer just a relic of the Cold War. Economic prosperity and social cohesion are not one and the same. The global commons cannot protect or heal itself.

“The 48th World Economic Forum annual meeting therefore aims to rededicate leaders from all walks of life to developing a shared narrative to improve the state of the world.”

As at 12 January 2018, 58 South Africans have been confirmed as attending the meeting (down from 61 in 2017) including 45 business leaders, 7 government officials, 3 academics, and 3 members of the media.

The South African government delegation will be led by new ANC president and current deputy president of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa, who will be joined by finance minister Malusi Gigaba; minister in the presidency, Jeff Radebe; minister of trade and industries, Rob Davies; as well as the ministers of economic development, public works and international relations.

From the business sector, the same faces that have been attending the meeting for the last few years will again be working to sell a good South African story, including all the big banking CEOs, and executives from the mining and agricultural sector.

The leadership teams from state-owned companies will also be in attendance.

The list of attendees at the forum – particularly from government and state companies – are always of keen interest due to the high costs of attending the meeting, where all members must pay to participate.

Aside from the membership costs to simply attend the WEF meeting, the resort town of Davos does not host delegates cheaply.

Reports have pegged the total cost of attending the meeting anywhere between $20,000 to over $50,000 per delegate, which for South Africa’s government could push the attendance bill as high as R5 million.

However, attendance is not without its merits, as demonstrated by former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who used the opportunity to build business confidence in South Africa in 2017, at a time when the economy was rocked with uncertainty amid political volatility.

This year, team South Africa, led by Ramaphosa, will try and turn global opinion of a junk status South Africa, by pushing a narrative of economic stability and policy certainty. At a meeting held on Thursday, the deputy president said that political uncertainty is no longer a problem in the country.

South Africa is an attractive country, ripe for investment, he said – but he acknowledged that much work is still needed to reign in state-owned companies, and to deal with corruption.

The tables below list all the South African leaders who will be attending the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this year:

Government

State-run groups

Finance and Investment

Business leaders

Media

Other

Read: Ramaphosa vows to revive struggling economy