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Dar es Salaam - The media is being refused access to 18 of
the 45 sessions and workshops at the 20th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa
this year, after “faulty reporting” of a speech by Trevor Manuel - who heads
South Africa’s National Planning Commission - at the 2009 meeting in Cape Town.
The WEF is being held in East Africa for the first time this
year, after being hosted in Cape Town a number of times. According to the
programme, all brainstorming and workshop sessions as well as all lunches,
dinners and cocktail parties are off-limits to journalists, who are barred from
attending these functions.
This morning, The Guardian in Tanzania quoted WEF director
Katherine Tweedie as saying that these restrictions were to ensure free speech
among delegates, without fear of being “misrepresented” by the media.
Tweedie then referred to a discussion about the future of
South Africa in Cape Town last year, where Manuel gave a speech about
“businesses must do X, Y and Z”. She said the media used only this sentence and
quoted it out of context.
Manuel was in the headlines last year after speaking out against
the private sector and calling business leaders “cowards”, because they
couldn’t stand up against the trade unions.
According to Tweedie, the speakers at this session were "honest about the relationship between the government and the business sector
and the future of South Africa".
She said: “I think there was a gross misrepresentation of a
subtle point that had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion that was on
the go.”
The functions from which the press has been barred include a
work session about higher education on the continent and a discussion about the
building of South Africa after the 2010 Fifa World Cup with Manuel, President
Jacob Zuma, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Economic Development Minister
Ebrahim Patel and Business Unity South Africa (Busa) CEO Jerry Vilakazi.
The WEF, which kicks off on Tuesday, will be attended by 11
African heads of state and several ministers. Besides Zuma and Tanzania’s
President Jakaya Kikwete, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda and Namibia’s President
Hefikepunye Pohamba will be present.
The theme of this year’s WEF on Africa is Rethinking
Africa’s Growth Strategy, and the major focus is expected to be on the
continent’s economic development.
- Sake24.com