Sunny Durban To Shed Light On Africa's Problems

- Peter Sullivan

After a decade in the wilderness, Africa’s busiest port has attracted the prestigious World Eco-nomic Forum back to the city, at a time when po-litical turbulence is bedeviling Africa’s economic potential.

Descending on sunny Durban in May, a thousand of the continent’s political, business and financial leaders will enjoy the beaches and good weather, leaving Cape Town’s nose out of joint. South Africa’s Mother City, seen as the preferred host for the past decade, rested on its laurels, believing it was secure. It wasn’t.

Durban lost the Commonwealth Games but won the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa 2017 in the great city competition for revenue-producing events. And WEF Africa is a big one to get, as well-heeled participants spend freely, especially with the local currency a bargain for visitors from abroad.

As always, commentators will question what the WEF meeting actually achieves.

“It’s just a talking shop,” new reporters sagely conclude. Yes… but no. That’s rather like saying Barclays is just a bank. Yes, but…

The important Geneva-based organization and its famous Davos gathering is immensely influential in determining countries’ economic direction, with Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance, economists and others, all giving input and deriving output by meeting their equivalents, discussing trends, agreeing on ways forward, discovering how little they know about economics or how little their friends know.

This year organizers say the focus will be on action and tangible solutions. I’ve heard that before, and as a veteran of about 20 of the meetings in Davos and Africa, ‘action’ is always the objective, seldom the result.