President Thabo Mbeki has praised world leaders who were at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, last month, for committing to be ”part of the generation that eliminates extreme poverty” in Africa and the world.
Mbeki led a South African delegation of government, business and civil society leaders that attended the meeting at the end of January.
Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today, on Friday, Mbeki said the delegation agreed that what distinguished this year’s WEF meeting was its concentrated and sustained focus on the challenge of global poverty.
”In this context, this year’s Davos meeting was doubly inspiring to us because, for the first time, it succeeded to place the challenge of Africa’s renewal and development high on the global agenda,” he said.
”Without exception, the South African delegation was greatly moved that, at last, the important global decision-makers who gather at Davos every year were, for the first time at this forum, paying this kind of attention to the welfare of the peoples of Africa.”
Davos 2005 communicated the message that, at last, the world progressive movement and people of goodwill have understood their obligations to the African masses, who continue to suffer as a result of the ”legacy of global apartheid”.
It goes without saying that it will take a considerable period of time, as well as enormous resources, to eradicate this global legacy, in much the same way as it will take time and enormous resources to eradicate the legacy of domestic apartheid in South Africa.
”The excellent news is that our domestic experience tells the positive story that given the will to act … it is possible gradually to overcome the legacy of global apartheid in terms of the distribution of wealth and income.
”It portends a new and inspiring dawn that the eminent citizens of the world, who were at Davos 2005, seem to agree that they too want to be part of the generation that eliminates extreme poverty in Africa and the world,” Mbeki said. — Sapa