Team South Africa headed to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, next week is confident the country will shine at the annual meeting in Switzerland, under the theme of ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age’.

Members representing South Africa held a pre-WEF breakfast briefing session on Thursday in Sandton, where Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, stressed the importance of collaboration between business and government as they prepare to present the nation’s story on the global stage.

“The WEF Annual Meeting brings together a wide array of key global stakeholders. These audiences are keen to understand the opportunities and challenges facing South Africa. It is essential that we align our key messages to showcase our country’s strengths, address misconceptions, and advance our collective priorities. By presenting a unified message, we can enhance South Africa’s standing and influence in the global community,” the minister said.

“These audiences are keen to understand the opportunities and challenges facing South Africa. It is essential that we align our key messages to showcase our country’s strengths, address misconceptions, and advance our collective priorities. By presenting a unified message, we can enhance South Africa’s standing and influence in the global community,” Godongwana said.

“Turning to the state of the South African economy, we acknowledge the challenges we face. The third quarter contraction, combined with the slight downward revision of the second quarter GDP, resulted in modest growth of 0.4% over the first three quarters of 2024. This was below the projections included in the 2024 MTBPS macroeconomic forecast. However, we remain cautiously optimistic. There are significant upside risks to growth in the final quarter, including faster-than-anticipated easing of inflationary pressures, improved electricity reliability, and the stimulus effect of the withdrawals of the two-pot retirement system. While the road ahead is challenging, these positive indicators provide a foundation for stronger growth in 2025 and beyond,” the minister of finance further said.

Speaking at the breakfast, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), Parks Tau, said, “This year’s edition of WEF presents a unique opportunity for South Africa, to show our global counterparts the successes that we have had as a nation, where we can reflect on key issues in the country. The mood is different this year, as collaboration between the business sector and government is much stronger than what is was in the past.”

Nonkululeko Merina Cheryl Nyembezi, Standard Bank Group’s Board Chairperson, who is also a part of Team SA attending WEF, said they would be stressing the alignment achieved between Government and the business sector in the country.

“This time, we will have credibility about what was said previously, as it was actually carried out,” Nyembezi said.

She pointed to the decreased load shedding experienced in South Africa as one of the successful collaborations between the government and the private sector.

“South Africa is tiding on a firmer footing than we did when compared to the same time last year. There are signs that the economy of the country will be growing,” Nyembezi further said.

Treasury said it would confirm later this week who the official members of Team SA will be representing the country at WEF, but did say that those who attended the breakfast would make up part of the delegates attending.

Adrian Gore, CEO of Discovery Limited, CEO of First Rand, Nedbank CEO, Jason Quinn, and Mary Vilakazi were the others who was present at the breakfast and will be attending WEF 2025.

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