The year 2025 can best be described as a rollercoaster for South Africa’s labour and political landscape, shaped by global events that are redefining how countries engage with one another.
From a budget stalemate that nearly derailed key Treasury instruments, to the formation of a new political party breaking away from Jacob Zuma’s MK, to South Africa hosting the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg in November, the first on African soil, 2025 delivered no shortage of political drama.
FEBRUARY:
- President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the state of the nation address under the government of national unity, outlining sweeping measures to turn around the embattled local government sector.
- President Donald Trump signs an executive order halting US aid for South Africa.
- South Africa hosts several G20 meetings, including the first meetings of foreign ministers, finance ministers and central bank governors.
MARCH:
- South Africa announces the phased withdrawal of its troops from the Southern African Development Community peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Fourteen South African soldiers were killed in January as M23 rebels pushed towards the east of DRC.
APRIL:
- An inquest into the death of Chief Albert Luthuli is reopened. The apartheid-era narrative that he was hit by a train was overturned by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in October, with the inquest confirming that he died from a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhage due to assault, not a train accident.
MAY:
- Trump ambushes Ramaphosa during a meeting at the White House, where he repeats the discredited claim of “white genocide” in South Africa.
- Deputy president Paul Mashatile embarks on a working visit to the South Africa-France Investment Conference in Paris to promote trade and investment.
- The Trump administration welcomes 59 white South Africans to whom it has granted refugee status in the US for being deemed victims of racial discrimination.
JUNE:
- Mashatile participates in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum’s plenary session during a working visit to the Russian Federation.
- Floyd Shivambu is axed as secretary-general of the MK party on the basis of a questionable “intelligence report” suggesting he was working secretly to take over the party.
JULY:
- KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi holds a highly charged media briefing in which he accuses police minister Senzo Mchunu, who was later put on special leave, of ties to criminal syndicates. Ramaphosa appoints the Madlanga commission to probe allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system.
AUGUST
- The ANC’s national executive committee meets to reflect on economic challenges, such as unemployment and the impact of US trade tariffs on job creation.
SEPTEMBER
- The Constitutional Court rules that men can assume their wives’ surnames, declaring parts of the Births & Deaths Registration Act unconstitutional for unfairly discriminating based on gender by allowing only women to change surnames after marriage.
- An investigation into the death of anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement founder and leader Steve Biko is reopened. In November, it was adjourned to January 30 2026, for further case management and finalisation of legal funding for two apartheid-era policemen.
- Ambassador to France Nathi Mthethwa dies after falling from a Paris building in an apparent suicide.
- Shivambu announces the launch of his political party, Afrika Mayibuye Movement, after months of consultation.
OCTOBER:
- South Africa officially exits the Financial Action Task Force greylist after intensive efforts to strengthen frameworks to combat money-laundering and terrorism financing. It had been on the greylist since February 2023.
- EFF leader Julius Malema is convicted by the high court in East London of breaching firearms legislation after he discharged a firearm during party’s fifth anniversary celebration in Mdantsane in 2018.
- Ramaphosa visits Southeast Asia, making stops in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. He also participates as a guest of the chair at the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
NOVEMBER:
- South Africa hosts the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg. The declaration committed to strengthening multilateral co-operation to address global challenges, with a significant focus on debt sustainability for developing nations, climate action and disaster resilience, and advancing Africa’s industrialisation and global economic participation.
DECEMBER:
- Ramaphosa attends the fourth Mozambique-South Africa Bi-National Commission in Maputo, with members of the cabinet, including finance, social development and agriculture.
- The ANC holds its national general council, a midterm platform between national conferences to assess the movement’s progress in implementing the resolutions of its last national congress.
- Cosatu holds its 40th anniversary celebration in Soweto, Johannesburg.
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