The G20 leaders summit was held in South Africa last week. (GCIS)
After hosting arguably one of the most successful and best organised G20 summits in history and cementing its position as an important player in global affairs, South Africa must get down to work to fulfil its mandate as an African representative and show the gathering was not just another talkshop.
With the United States’ boycott failing to dampen the Johannesburg summit — the first on African soil — world leaders moved with speed to agree on the declaration a day earlier than anticipated, breaking with tradition in a clear sign that consensus was easier to reach. It also showed that the summit theme: solidarity, equality and sustainability, resonated with the member countries, including Russia and China, two key Brics economies whose leaders sent high-level representatives.
This week, South Africa handed the G20 baton to the US as the next president, ending months of a diplomatic tussle with the Donald Trump administration. While relations between Pretoria and Washington remain frosty in the face of the US’s hostility towards South Africa, the world now knows that it can move on and achieve consensus with or without the blessings of Trump and his administration.
In President Cyril Ramaphosa’s words, “reinforcing our shared humanity” rather than allowing “division and polarisation between nations” is what carried the day for the summit, which the US sought to derail at every step.
South Africa must look beyond the US’s antics and implement the resolutions of the Johannesburg summit and move ahead with African development priorities as set out in the global agenda. It is not just the hosting of a successful summit that will strengthen the country’s role in global issues, but its ability to take decisive action that promotes solidarity, advances equality and guaranteed sustainability — the themes of the 20th summit of the bloc.
As the most unequal country in the world and facing rampant unemployment, especially among the youth, South Africa’s G20 presidency offered an opportunity for the country to push for policies that advance inclusive growth, a brave new approach to critical minerals so that Africa and Africans benefit from the entire value chain, rather than continue to send these unprocessed resources abroad.
We are hopeful that the bilateral meetings held on the sidelines of the Leaders’ Summit will also move from being mere photo opportunities to real projects that will boost investment in Africa, lower the high levels of debt in our economies and boost intra-Africa trade.
For when we see cranes and construction trucks in our key cities, from Cape to Cairo, we must connect infrastructure development and the revitalisation of our capitals to the success of the continent’s first G20 summit.