Although South Africa is the leading economic force of the continent, it has fallen some thirty places behind between 1990 and today in the human development indicator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD). A paradoxical situation for one of the world's most industrialised countries, but which is explained by the lack of basic infrastructure in particular. To overcome this, the South African government has decided to double its efforts and has made health, safety and technical risk prevention one of its primary concerns. In this regard, SHERCON 2007 appears symbolic in this fundamental movement. This is Lance Louw's opinion at any rate, who explains: "The development of companies based in the country is going to be a significant source of growth for us, but also a challenge to which we must rise by offering suitable, effective services to ensure the safety of workers". The challenge is considerable and no one thinks otherwise, since SHERCON welcomed speakers from all types of backgrounds. And, because South Africa will be hosting the World Cup in 2010, it was Michael Kunher, chief of the police in Stuttgart, one of the main cities concerned by the 2006 conference, who opened this year's conference. He went back over the measures that must be taken to limit the risks inherent in this type of competition and gave a lot of advice, the fruit of his past experience. In the evening, the Dekra trophies were awarded to the companies that had obtained the best results in terms of safety and risk prevention. At the same time, Enver Surty thanked Dekra Norisko Industrial South Africa for the grants and competition organised in several schools in south Africa to produce posters highlighting the concepts of safety and prevention at school. These three days saw some thirty prestigious speakers take to the floor - to the satisfaction of the 300 people who had travelled to this key gathering and were unanimous in praising the quality of presentations and the exhaustiveness of the topics broached. Leon Maluleke, Safety-Health-Environment-Quality manager of Magalies Water, reflected the general approval by mentioning "the quality of the organisation and speakers who allowed us not just to review the current situation but also, and above all, to talk about the changes to be expected in the years to come".