The Investing in African Mining Indaba 2012, which starts at the Cape Town International Convention Centre today, and runs until Thursday, is the biggest event Cape Town’s hospitality industry has seen in a year, and accommodation establishments in the city are close to fully booked for the week ahead.
More than 6500 delegates from 1000 international companies and 40 government delegations have booked to attend the important conference, this being the 18th year of its organisation and the largest gathering of decision makers in the mining industry, and is always held in Cape Town. Delegates represent resource companies, geologists, fund managers and financiers, in the city to network and strike deals. Speakers are hand-picked, and ‘represent the who’s who of global economists, international commodities experts, analysts and mining executives’, says the conference website.
Minister of Mining Susan Shabangu is delivering the opening speech at the Mining Indaba, and it will be closely watched for the government’s declaration of its stand on mining rights, in the spotlight when notorious ANC Youth League President Julius Malema called for the nationalisation of the mining industry, which the Minister has already rejected. She has however acknowledged that the mining industry needs transformation, reports Business Day.
Conference delegates will be in for a shock, with the current heatwave of over 35°C in Cape Town, in that the Conference website predicts an average temperature of 20°C for this week.
Despite the Mining Indaba being one of the largest events in Cape Town, the city’s tourism marketing body Cape Town Tourism has no mention of the 2012 conference on its website, its last entries being for the 2010 and 2011 conferences. On Twitter yesterday the tourism body Tweeted about the size of the event, after we had Tweeted about it earlier in the day. Once again, Cape Town Tourism appears to be out of touch with what is happening in the city. Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold is on maternity leave for another three months, and all marketing for Cape Town appears to have ground to a standstill.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
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