Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers are set to descend on Joburg this week for a two-day meeting that gets under way at the Nasrec Expo Centre from Thursday.
SA took over the G20 presidency from Brazil late last year. President Cyril Ramaphosa will participate in the meetings.
While foreign affairs ministers including Russia’s Sergei Lavrov are also set to attend the gathering, US secretary of state Marco Rubio recently tweeted that he would not attend, due to the “very bad things” SA was doing with regard to the recently signed land expropriation legislation.
The department of international relations & cooperation has said the meeting will be held under the theme “solidarity, equality, sustainability”.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver his first budget speech under the government of national unity (GNU) in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Labour federation Cosatu said it was mobilising its affiliates against “austerity measures” and “advocating for a people’s budget” which it will deliver on the same day at St George’s Cathedral.
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said what is needed “is a bold, progressive and aggressive budget that will capacitate the state to deliver the quality public services society and the economy depend on to stimulate badly needed growth and slash unemployment to generate the revenue the state requires and provide relief to the unemployed while the economy picks up”.
To turn the country around, said Parks, the government must ramp up support for power utility Eskom to ensure load-shedding and load reduction are a thing of the past. Consumers and industries need reliable and affordable electricity, he said.
Interventions needed to be intensified to ensure Transnet and Metro Rail returned to full productivity “as these will unlock the mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors, major sources of revenue and jobs, as well as provide safe and cheap transport to commuters for going to work and thus boosting the urban economy”.
“The economy will grow if we fix the state, stimulate growth and slash unemployment. It will not grow by squeezing already badly under-resourced public services further,” Parks said.
On Tuesday, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) will hold a hearing on the annual report and financial statements of the department of defence, department of military veterans, arms manufacturer Denel and the Special Investigating Unit’s investigations.
The portfolio committee on communications and digital technologies is set to be briefed by GCIS on progress towards the finalisation of the GCIS white paper draft policy; filling of critical vacancies; an update on governance of the boards of entities; and the “relevance and adaptability of the GCIS to deliver government information in a digital economy”.
On Wednesday, the portfolio committee on defence and military veterans is to be briefed by the department of defence on its 2024/25 quarter three expenditure and performance report. Chief of the SANDF Gen Rudzani Maphwanya will brief the committee on the administration of consequence management in the force and slow progress of boards of inquiry related to irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
On Friday, the portfolio committee on higher education and training is to be briefed by the Nelson Mandela University and University of Mpumalanga on their readiness for the 2025 academic year, governance, administration, teaching and learning and related matters.
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