A public dialogue was held on “SA’s G20 Presidency” at the University of Pretoria, co-hosted by its Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship and the Heinrich Böll Foundation and attended by scholars, policymakers and civil society activists.
The two main speakers were Masotsha Mnguni, director and G20 overall project co-ordinator at SA’s department of international relations & co-operation, and Kamal Ramburuth, the G20 project lead at the Johannesburg-based Institute for Economic Justice.
The dialogue looked back at the past eight months of SA’s G20 presidency, themed “Solidarity, equality and sustainability”, and looked forward to its last four months, which will culminate in the G20 leaders’ summit at Nasrec in November. Amid a volatile global geopolitical climate characterised by a polycrisis of multilateralism that has seen enormous cuts in international development and humanitarian and security funding, Pretoria has convened 86 out of 132 planned meetings across its sherpa and finance tracks.
Its presidency has pushed the four priorities of strengthening disaster resilience and response, ensuring the debt sustainability of low-income countries, mobilising predictable and greater finances for a just energy transition, and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development. SA has also used three task forces to promote inclusive economic growth, industrialisation and employment; food security; and AI, data governance and innovation.
Pretoria has further sought to promote Africa’s interests in partnership with the AU (which joined the G20 in 2023), pushing the group to address obstacles to Africa’s growth and development. SA has stressed the urgency of rich countries, financial institutions, private sectors and development banks increasing funding to address climate-induced natural disasters caused by industrialised country polluters.
Pretoria has also championed debt sustainability for the 34 debt-distressed African countries, with 23 of those paying more in debt servicing than on health, education and other social sectors. SA has further tasked a G20 Africa expert panel with devising strategies to promote Africa’s collective developmental interests.
A more expansive G20 Compact with Africa (chaired by SA and Germany) built around the AU’s Agenda 2063, is also being promoted. Furthermore, Pretoria has pushed for constraints on affordable and predictable capital to be removed to enable developing countries to craft environmentally responsible and socially inclusive development plans.
SA’s energy transitions and finance track working groups have championed just and inclusive energy transitions that embrace socioeconomic equity that balances the need to fulfil climate goals with the push to foster industrial growth. These working groups have also nudged industrialised countries to fulfil their pledges of better quality and quantity of climate financial flows to developing countries, while unlocking greater private capital to support these efforts.
Furthermore, Pretoria is crafting a critical minerals framework document for adoption by the G20, which would ensure the real benefits of mineral wealth accrue to local communities and resource-rich countries.
SA has pushed for the reform of global governance institutions such as the UN and World Trade Organisation, but despite the rhetorical commitment to a fair, rules-based trade regime, all G20 countries are negotiating bilateral trade deals with a tariff-obsessed US administration. Pretoria has been tasked with reviewing the first full cycle of G20 summits, and to make recommendations for the second full cycle.
Building on the pioneering Rio de Janeiro G20 social summit, and seeking to expand outreach beyond the 13 G20 engagement groups involving women, youth, business and other sectors, SA is planning a social summit on the eve of the leaders’ meeting in November to incorporate these “voices from below” into the final G20 outcome document.
• Adebajo is professor and senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.
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