World-famous SA soprano Pretty Yende will sing at the Brics summit gala dinner on Wednesday night while award-winning chef Wandile Mabaso, of Bryanston’s Les Creatifs restaurant, will be overseeing the menu.
Police will turn out in full force. Airspace over the Sandton Convention Centre will be closed along with the roads around it as the 15th Brics summit opens on Tuesday.
Hotels in the area will be filled as leaders of as many as 50 countries descend on SA with their entourages.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will be joined at the summit by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and China’s President Xi Jinping, as well as Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who is attending in person while his boss, President Vladimir Putin, participates virtually.
SA invited many other heads of state to attend as guests at a summit where the possible expansion of the Brics bloc will be one of the big issues on the agenda, along with ways to counter Western hegemony, de-dollarisation and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The guests will join the “outreach” day of the summit on Thursday.
Hospitality
The event in Sandton is expected to boost a hospitality sector that is finally recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. And the sector will be showcasing SA favourites such as boerewors, pap and chakalaka with international cuisine.
City Lodge Hotels COO Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo said that the hotel group expects all six of its hotels in the Sandton area to reach full occupancy thanks to visiting delegates. She said that monthly occupancies across the group have steadily risen in 2023, surpassing 2019 levels, with average room rates also rising.
City Lodge hotels recently revamped their food and beverage menu, which includes shisa nyama and other dishes with a distinct SA flavour.
The @Sandton Hotel has designed its menu around SA and international dishes — think crushed, spicy avocado bruschetta and boerewors platters served with pap and chakalaka among other dishes.
Crime
There will be a heavy police presence and anti-crime operations to ensure safety and security around the convention centre.
The chair of the priority committee, Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, said that police visibility will be heightened in and around the centre to prevent opportunistic crime before, during and after the summit.
This will include law enforcement agencies from departments under the justice, crime prevention and security cluster such as defence, home affairs and the SA Police Service.
The Civil Aviation Authority has issued a notice restricting the airspace from Sunday to Thursday.
Motorists and residents of Johannesburg will have limited access to areas around the convention centre.
Road closures
Those who operate businesses and reside near the Sandton Convention Centre should note the following road closures, which are effective from 8am on Sunday to midnight on Thursday: corner Maude and West streets; corner West Street and Alice Lane; and corner Alice Lane and Fifth Street.
Residents and businesses in the vicinity of Gallagher Estate in Midrand should also expect road closures on August 23 between 3pm and midnight due to the Brics trade fair being hosted at the venue.
With TimesLIVE and Hilary Joffe
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