With the G20 coming to South Africa as a result of it soon assuming presidency of the intergovernmental forum, the question arises as to how prepared the country is for this huge undertaking.
The question relates to whether the country has the wherewithal to ensure a successful G20 summit in 2025, as well as whether it can do so in a manner that accrues material and non-material benefits for South Africa.
The G20 comprises 19 sovereign countries, the EU and the AU. It was established to contribute to the transformation of global economic governance and to overcome challenges such as low economic growth, high levels of poverty and hunger, growing environmental degradation, high patterns of exclusion and marginalisation, and geopolitical risks to shared prosperity from conflicts and trade wars. Established after the Asian financial crisis, the G20 has become the pre-eminent platform for negotiating reform of global economic governance.
While the country always sets laudable goals for chairing and hosting opportunities, it is not always clear whether, how and to what extent these goals are pursued.
The presidency of the G20, which Indonesia, India and Brazil have held in succession, now comes to South Africa, making it four Global South presidencies one after another. This presents opportunities for major developing economies to shape a G20 agenda that is not only inclusive but also fair and just. This agenda focuses on development and aims to accelerate the implementation of the world Sustainable Development Goals. The G20 presidencies by countries of the South are expected to place people, especially poor people, at the centre of the global economic agenda.
This makes hosting the G20 meetings and the summit a complex and heavy undertaking. South Africa has hosted major events in the past, such as COP17, the World Conference against Racism and the Fifa World Cup, as well as three Brics summits, AU summits and Sadc summits. It has chaired various global forums and meetings. It has experience, but the outcomes still need to be studied carefully to understand the cost-benefit balance in the broad sense.
The National Planning Commission recently examined South Africa's management of major events, focusing on its chairing and hosting of the AU, Sadc and Brics summits, and compared this to other countries. It found that while South Africa’s approach enhances the country’s standing and national interests, it is difficult to identify material benefits.
While the country always sets laudable goals for chairing and hosting opportunities, it is not always clear whether, how and to what extent these goals are pursued. It is not clear if the government undertakes any form of detailed assessment and rethinking of opportunities for chairing and hosting, including the manner in which we approach them. It is important to know whether South Africa draws lessons from those countries that have been successful in selecting what they chair and host to ensure that they accrue material and non-material benefits.
While it is apparent that South Africa grows its prestige and adds to its diplomatic clout with some of these opportunities to host or chair, what must be clarified is whether there is a codified strategy for turning this potential into real benefits. National interests cannot be limited to intangibles that must be imagined, they must also lead to material advantages for the people of South Africa. This conversion needs to be thought through carefully and systematically to prevent a situation where the people of South Africa see spending on hosting and chairing as luxuries for the benefit of the elite.
Circumstantial evidence of the benefits of chairing an international organisation or meeting will not be sufficient to defend the decision to chair and host. Presiding over the G20 is an expensive undertaking, with costs running into hundreds of millions, and the potential benefits are also immense if the country knows how to plan for and harness them. Some are short-term and others are long-term, but regardless, they must be known beforehand. The country needs to hear from the government about what will be done to use this potential so that it is worth more than the rands and cents invested in the G20 summit.
Championing the shared cause of 21 important economies is a precious opportunity for South Africa during these difficult economic times, so translating this opportunity into social, economic and political benefits should be an outcome of the strategy employed.
What exactly the strategy will be is something we should expect to hear about as the assumption of the G20 presidency on December 1 approaches. The Think 20 (T20) South Africa has a crucial role to play in shaping this strategy.
• Zondi is a professor in the department of politics and international relations and director of the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg. He is also chair of the South African Brics Think Tank
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