President Cyril Ramaphosa and US president-elect Donald Trump could find themselves at the same table in South Africa as the country prepares to host the Group of 20 Summit next year.
South Africa is aiming to make the most of its upcoming presidency of the G20 and the National Treasury has set aside R60m to prepare for the crucial gathering, which is expected to cost more than R600m.
On December 1, the presidency of the G20 will go from Brazil to South Africa.
Apart from Trump, leaders of China, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Turkey and Mexico are expected to descend on our shores.
Russia, operating under Western sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine, could again be represented by its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as leader Vladimir Putin continues to shun travel over an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
International relations and co-operation spokesperson Chrispin Phiri told Business Times the government’s plans for the year-long presidency and the G20 Summit were at an advanced stage. He said minister Ronald Lamola would hold a briefing on Tuesday to provide more information.
In September, Lamola said the government expected to spend R619m on organising the G20 summit. “There is a lot of work that has been done. We plan on having a press conference on Tuesday, and I think the minister will be able to update the nation there. But I can tell you extensive work has gone into this,” said Phiri.
The event comes five years before the deadline of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
Phiri said the G20 presidency would include ministers of various portfolios and heads of various government institutions who’d be meeting with their counterparts from around the world. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana, for instance, will meet with his finance counterparts in February. “We take over the presidency on December 1. The first meetings are the finance ministers in February and the foreign ministers at a similar time,” he said.
He said the official launch of the event’s website would happen soon. Lamola’s briefing is also expected to unpack the theme, as South Africa allows Brazil to conclude its presidency. “The G20 presidency for Brazil is still underway, and it is very important for that to conclude its work before we can get to the agenda of the upcoming presidency, and the issues that we would like to tackle.
“ What is important to note is that ours is the last presidency from the developing world. After this it goes back to the US, and back to the developed world.”
The G20 presidency rotated between Indonesia, India and Brazil since November 2022. The last developed nation to hold it was Italy in 2021.
Ismail Lagardien, speechwriter in the office of the chief economist of the World Bank and a member of the secretariat of the National Planning Commission, said balancing the relationships South Africa enjoys with the West, while continuing the valuable ties to the Global South, was a delicate but necessary balance.
“There’s a concept called variable geometry. Sometimes it is better to fly high and to avoid turbulence, sometimes it is better to fly low. South Africa will have to manage these relationships in order to sustain trade relationships without neglecting the relationships with China, India and Russia,” he said.
“We’ve come to accept what we’ve been made to think is normal is to be part of Europe and the US. Any shift from that will make some people unhappy. As for Trump, domestically, I suspect there’ll be many problems in the US.”
Lagardien said Trump’s preoccupation with the global front would be on strengthening Nato, but any ability to resolve the world’s most pressing geopolitical emergencies quickly would be diluted. South Africa’s presidency of the G20 held a great opportunity to shape global governance.
“We should probably not place the burden [solely] on South Africa. What is currently underway… is South Africa is positioned to make a significant contribution with its counterparts China and Russia, and countries that are not representative of the West, so tensions like those with Brics will help steer the world in a different direction.
“Now, different doesn’t necessarily mean bad. It doesn’t necessarily mean good. But it’s just that the European world has dominated everything in the world that we do and all that we do is determined by the West.”
Lagardien said while the moral authority conferred by the world to South Africa after Nelson Mandela’s rise to power in 1994 has since dwindled, South Africa was gradually clawing its way back. The country was also known for figures of great “intellectual power” such as former president Thabo Mbeki, as well as former finance ministers Trevor Manuel and the late Tito Mboweni, he added.
He said Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago was another highly regarded mind whose participation would be a credit to South Africa.
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