PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, to try to deal with the country’s load shedding crisis.
According to the Presidency, Ramaphosa has cancelled all his engagements with the WEF, which starts on Monday and continues until Friday.
“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM) and the Eskom board,” said presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has already engaged with the leadership of Eskom and National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM) and those meetings will continue. More briefing sessions to key stakeholders will take place during this coming week.”
Held under the tagline of “Cooperation in a Fragmented World” from January 16-20, panellists and speakers at the WEF will include former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and the actor Idris Elba.
Olaf Scholz is the only G-7 leader set to attend the WEF’s annual summit in Davos, with the German chancellor due to speak on the main stage for the second time since taking office in 2021.
The WEF’s own pre-summit annual risk report said the cost-of-living crisis was the biggest threat to the world today, highlighting the impact of the energy crisis, food scarcity and higher prices on the most vulnerable.
However, the Davos meeting has increasingly become the subject of criticism in the past few years, with some accusing attendees of elitism and hypocrisy for arriving in private jets to discuss climate change.
In 2019, Dutch historian Rutger Bregman accused many of his fellow attendees of failing to pay a fair share of taxes while speaking of “participation, justice, equality and transparency.”
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