EDITORIAL: Inclusive G20 will rescue its credibility

Leaders from the world’s top economies will arrive in Johannesburg this week. To much of the SA media they might as well be landing on the moon.

High-profile multilateral meetings are becoming increasingly closed-off, isolated affairs. The G20 Leaders Summit regrettably promises to be no different. It is set to continue trends that we have seen, locally and internationally, of relegating the press to picking scraps on the sidelines.

As things stand there are scarce plans for interview opportunities, question-and-answer press conferences or meaningful interactions of any kind. It is eerily reminiscent to journalists who covered the Brics conference in 2023 — an event, some have been heard to grumble, that shunted them into a “garage in Sandton” where they were forced to watch a snapshot in history — unfolding only metres away — on a TV screen.

SA journalists, the stubborn creatures that we are, will not accept this. There will be ample doorstopping — industry parlance for compelling an unscheduled interview — and haggling with diplomatic contacts to organise rare sit-downs. But that necessitated ingenuity does not excuse the impassable and opaque nature that event organisers are reticent to let go of.

Of course, it is only fair to recognise that there are strong pragmatic reasons at the heart of this dispensation. We live in an increasingly fractious world, one in which it is a reality that bad actors will perpetually look to disrupt and harm. The priority of any visiting delegation is to guarantee the safety of its delegates above any other consideration.

A transparent summit will be the test tonic to scepticism. World leaders must not just put their principles on the table but hold them up for interrogation.

Closed-door conversations are also simply a part of the process of global diplomacy. US President Donald Trump’s TV litigations of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are anomalous and are not a representation of how international business is conducted. If anything, those attempts of public bullying are highly pernicious and should be discouraged.

With those caveats in mind, a complete lockdown risks undermining the ethos and purpose of gatherings such as the G20. World leaders are accountable to those they represent. Whether at home or abroad, the media plays a critical role in mediating that relationship. A gathering of elites behind closed doors, unregulated by any accountability, is not democratic. It is oligarchical.

SA, international standards notwithstanding, has an opportunity to push for meaningful change.

The past few years have threatened the world’s multilateral institutions. Major conflicts have undermined the perceived ability of organisations such as the UN to arbitrate or prevent disputes. Trump and other actors have railed against them, making clear that they are not beholden to their dictates.

Now on SA soil the G20 has to fend off barbs aimed at its legitimacy.

The list of missing heads of state does not justify alarm yet. Vladimir Putin was always a doubt and Xi Jinping’s nonattendance is not unprecedented. But the absence of the US, and Ramaphosa’s symbolic handing over to an “empty chair” may well barrel roll into an ugly narrative.

A transparent summit will be the best tonic to scepticism. World leaders must not just put their principles on the table but hold them up for interrogation. In practical terms this means giving a far greater deal of thought to how they work with the attending media. Doing so would not just prove that they genuinely believe in the ideas they espouse but also give the rest of us cause to retain faith in the institutions that produce them.