The government is looking to spend about R691m hosting the Group of 20 (G20) summit next year including the meetings of sherpas and foreign ministers beforehand, international relations & co-operation minister Ronald Lamola has revealed.
SA will assume the rotational presidency of the G20 on December 1 after the summit in Brazil in November. The G20 summit in SA will take place on November 27-28 2025.
The G20 is an international forum to discuss a range of issues including macroeconomic, trade, sustainable development, health, agriculture, energy, environment, climate change and anticorruption. Last year, the AU was included as a permanent member of the G20, which also includes the EU.
G20 members represent about 85% of global GDP, over 75% of global trade and about two-thirds of the world’s population.
The G20 presidency is responsible for bringing together the forum’s agenda in consultation with other members and in response to developments in the global economy.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Ryan Smith, Lamola said that an amount of R194m (including 10% incidental charges) had been budgeted for the summit itself, including accommodation (R32m), ground transport (R24.6m), domestic air transport (R12.3m), venue facilities, interpreters and catering (R103.7m) support services for stakeholders (R4.3m) and R14m for support staff and compensation for the department of international relations & co-operation.
Added to this will be the R497m cost of Sherpa Track and foreign ministers’ meetings organised by the department from December to November 2025, which brings the total to R691m.
“There is a proposal to host about 130 meetings (both virtual and in-person) from 1 December 2024-30 November 2025,” Lamola said.
Department spokesperson Clayson Monyela noted in a response to a Business Day question that SA’s estimated expenditure on the summit was by far the lowest compared with previous ones.
Lamola said that processes were under way to establish a G20 secretariat with representatives from various government departments. The Sherpa Track, led by the international relations & co-operation department, had established a secretariat structure to deal with preparations for SA’s G20 presidency.
Sherpas are representatives of the leaders of each country who take the discussions and agreements to the final summit with heads of state and government. The Sherpa Track is made up of 15 working groups, two task forces and an Initiative.
Lamola said the department had hosted and continued to host workshops with various organisations to help it refine its priorities for the presidency. These included the UN Economic Social and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ), International Economic Partnership (IEP), University of Pretoria and SA Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA).
In August, the cabinet considered a memorandum outlining SA’s priorities and key deliverables for the G20 summit, as well as a calendar of meetings and proposals for the venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban for the various ministerial meetings and the summit. Budgetary implications were also considered.
“Venues for technical, ministerial and leaders’ summit are still under consideration. An analysis, taking into account security considerations, availability of accommodation and transport, airport facilities and so on [has] been conducted on Cape Town, Johannesburg and eThekwini to assess the capacity of each city to host the leaders’ summit in 2025.”
The planning processes would be based on experiences gained during the planning for major events hosted in SA such as the Brics summits and 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Provinces and cities would be expected to carry the costs of G20 side events taking place throughout the country.
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