Power politics: President Cyril Ramaphosa will lead global leaders at the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend. Photo: City of Joburg
There was drama on Thursday night when President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed South Africa had received a formal notice from the United States confirming that it has changed its mind and now intends to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg. He made the announcement while hosting European Union leaders at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Ramaphosa welcomed the decision and said it was a positive sign because boycott politics never works.
The shift comes a day after President Donald Trump warned South Africa against handing over the G20 Social Declaration to leaders this weekend. The warning raised questions about Washington’s stance on South Africa’s people centred agenda.
Ramaphosa’s confirmation now places the United States back in the room for the weekend negotiations at Nasrec where South Africa is pushing for stronger action on inequality, gender justice and global cooperation.
This came as South Africa closed the G20 Social Summit on Thursday with far more confidence than the geopolitical noise surrounding it suggested.
Less than 24 hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa stepped up to receive the Social Declaration in Ekurhuleni, the United States had warned Pretoria against pursuing a joint G20 leaders’ statement at this weekend’s summit.
Instead of being boxed in by the intervention, Ramaphosa used it to sharpen his message and assert South Africa’s leadership. His response drew applause and set the tone for a presidency determined not to be intimidated by power politics.
Ramaphosa did not mention the United States by name, yet his reply was unmistakable.
“There should be no bullying of one nation by another. We are all equal,” he said, and applause broke out across the room. His tone sharpened as he argued that global governance could not be sustained on unwritten rules that assign feasts to some countries and scraps to others.
It was the most unambiguous indication yet of how South Africa intends to frame its presidency: a refusal to be cowed by geopolitical muscle and a determination to force the G20 to answer to more than its most influential members.
From there, he widened the lens. The world, he said, is living through a convergence of conflicts, climate shocks and rising inequality. These forces are now eroding global development in visible ways, and the G20 cannot pretend that it sits above them.
“Global action will be credible because it is informed by the voices of the people,” he told delegates.
He described civil society, youth, labour and women’s movements as strong roots that keep international cooperation grounded in lived experience rather than in abstract commitments.
Ramaphosa then reached back into history and joined the moment to a longer arc of Global South imagination. He invoked the 1955 Bandung Conference as the first time the Global South spoke for itself and linked it to the Freedom Charter adopted in Kliptown that same year.
“You are making history,” he said. “This summit must be remembered for giving practical meaning to what global solidarity is all about.”
It was a reminder that solidarity has been an organising principle for the South long before the G20 existed and that attempts to silence smaller nations now would repeat older patterns of exclusion.
The Social Summit, held from 18 to 20 November at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, brought together youth formations, women’s groups, labour unions, disability rights advocates, faith leaders and community organisations.
South Africa used the gathering to drive the presidency’s theme of solidarity, equality and sustainability and to push the G20 to realign its agenda with the daily realities of communities across the globe.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile set the tone on Tuesday with a firm Afrocentric framing.
“South Africa is because of Africa,” Mashatile said, adding that the global system must reflect the continent’s priorities, demographic weight and development needs.
The summit offered an unprecedented opening to place the African agenda at the centre of the world’s foremost economic cooperation platform, and the Global South should no longer operate as a peripheral voice in international decision-making, Mashatile told delegates.
Mashatile placed gender-based violence at the heart of Africa’s development crisis. He described it as one of the continent’s most severe social issues. He said any discussion of equality or social progress was hollow unless it confronted the violence that blocks women’s participation in every sphere of society.
He positioned young people as drivers of transformation, shaping the future architecture of global cooperation rather than waiting for slow-moving institutions to catch up.
Ramaphosa returned to gender-based violence on Thursday and he told delegates that South Africa had formally declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis and that all social partners had agreed to take extraordinary action to end it.
He said the plight of women demanded immediate attention and confirmed that the country would officially classify gender-based violence and femicide as a crisis that requires every available means of response. The hall rose to the statement and the declaration’s provisions on women and girls took on renewed weight.
Co-convenors Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Khumbudzo Ntshavheni reinforced the message that Africa must be read through its strengths rather than its deficits.
Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted the continent’s fertile land and critical mineral reserves and said these assets should shape global conversations on development and the green transition. Both argued that Africa should no longer be an afterthought in discussions that directly affect its economic and environmental future.
On Wednesday, the G20’s Engagement Groups debated digital access, climate justice, resilient value chains, the just transition, energy democracy, the reform of global financial institutions and the need to align Sustainable Development Goals with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Side events placed strong emphasis on women’s economic rights. UN Women officials presented data showing that women perform roughly 70% of unpaid care work globally and stressed that meaningful equality requires investment in the care economy rather than rhetorical commitments.
The declaration handed to Ramaphosa on Thursday reflects those concerns. Delegates called for stronger social protection systems, fairer development finance, wider access to climate adaptation support and concrete steps to close digital divides.