South Africa ends its G20 presidency this weekend with a two-day head of states summit focused on debt relief and global inequality – a meeting the United States says it will boycott. Pretoria says it has held talks with Washington about possible limited participation, but the White House insists the US will not join the discussions and will send only a diplomat for the handover.
The theme of South Africa's G20 leadership was "Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability", with a pledge to focus on supporting developing countries through debt relief, and financing measures to help them cope with disasters caused by climate change.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February branded the agenda "anti-American" and snubbed the G20 meeting that month, setting the tone for a complicated year for South Africa's presidency.
Trump has said that no US officials will attend this weekend's summit, over widely discredited claims that white people are being persecuted in South Africa.
Ramaphosa told reporters ahead of the 22-23 November event that the US's absence is "their loss".
Pretoria has made debt relief the priority, targeting repayments that meant limiting investment in essential infrastructure for healthcare and education.
According to the United Nations, between 2021 and 2023 Africa spent $70 per capita on debt interest payments – more than on education or health, which saw spending of $63 and $44 per capita respectively.
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Inequalities Panel
At this weekend's summit, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will also push for the creation of an International Inequalities Panel – modelled after the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – to tackle massive global inequality.
A report for the G20 published earlier this month, led by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, labelled wealth inequality as a global crisis that threatens democracy and social cohesion worldwide, saying it should be confronted with the same urgency as the climate crisis.
If adopted, the International Inequalities Panel pushed by Ramaphosa "would mark a significant win not just for Pretoria's presidency, but for the millions across the Global South whose voices are often sidelined in elite economic forums," according to Tendai Mbanje, a researcher at the the University of Pretoria's Centre for Human Rights.
'I see a lot of determination'
Désiré Assogbavi, advisor on Africa at the Open Society Foundations grantmaking network, believes huge progress has been made.
"This G20 is happening in a very particular situation," Assogbavi told RFI. "You see what's happening in the world; multilateralism has been being challenged around the world. So this is a particular moment. The G20 is supposed to be one of the best expressions of countries, with people working together to find greater solutions for world problems."
He underlined that even if not everybody will be at the table, the vast majority of countries are keen to move forwards.
"The United States has decided not to endorse the presidency of South Africa and decided to boycott it, while it is happening for the first time in Africa. This is regrettable, really unfortunate. I wish everybody came," he said.
"However, the summit will go ahead. And I see a lot of determination from various delegations, from various actors to move forward anyway, to try to resolve the big problem that our continent, and the whole world, is having."
He added: "It seems to be one of the most inclusive presidencies. Over the last few days, since I landed here in Johannesburg, I've seen various groups having their own meetings around the key thematics of the summit. And the conclusions of those discussions will be part of the general debates of the leaders."
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A pan-African presidency
The G20 represents 85 percent of global GDP and around two-thirds of the world's population, and includes 19 countries as well as the European Union – as well as now the African Union.
South Africa has insisted throughout the year of its G20 leadership that it has been a presidency of the whole of Africa.
It has been a success in that sense according to Assogbavi, with the African Union being admitted as a full member.
"So we have South Africa as a member, and we also have the African Union as a full member at the table now," Assogbavi told RFI. "And I can say this is one of the achievements of President Ramaphosa at the helm of the G20, allowing the continental agenda to be a priority and not only the South African agenda."
Debt sustainability is the African Union's priority too, with its heads of state meeting in Lomé, Togo in May to sign the Lomé Declaration on debt sustainability on the continent.
Mineral exploitation
Another key issue for Africans is the management of the mineral mining projects exploding across the continent.
This week South Africa and the European Union also signed a new agreement on critical minerals and processing, reflecting the continent’s effort to secure more value from its resources and shape its role in the green-energy transition.
"Let's be clear: we're not going to resolve all the problems of the continent in one G20 meeting, but what is positive is that we have been seeing the entire continent speaking with one voice on those critical issues – and most importantly the issue of Africa being a provider of raw critical minerals to the rest of the world, and only taking 5 percent of the profits," said Assogbavi.
He added that the South African presidency comes at an interesting moment for the continent, as the world is talking about the production of critical minerals, which are considered green sources of energy.
"There's a realisation in the whole world that they are useful to tackle the climate issue, instead of using the old fossil fuel to generate energy," Assogbavi said.
"Africa is targeted as a reserve of minerals that the whole world needs. It is important for Africa to be united and to speak with one voice on how they're going to manage that situation. And this is happening. The G20 is one part of it, but there will be other gatherings internationally where this discussion will have its way," he added.
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Looking forward
It remains unclear whether South Africa's G20 presidency will manage to secure a consensus and release a joint final declaration on these issues.
Delegates involved in preparatory work report that some participants have been obstructive – including Argentina's representatives, as the country's President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, is also boycotting the event.
China's representative Premier Li Qiang is expected to advocate for multilateralism. "Economic globalisation and multipolarity are irreversible," Li said at an Asian regional summit in October.
Russia will be represented by President Vladimir Putin's economic advisor and deputy chief of staff, Maxim Oreshkin, in the notable absence of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The summit also begins a day after the conclusion of Cop30 in Belem, Brazil, and its final negotiations could influence discussions in Johannesburg.
At a press conference in Johannesburg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was fighting emissions rather than fossil fuels themselves, prompting criticism from environmental groups and raising questions about how strongly the bloc will push for a global fossil fuel phase-out in Cop30’s final hours.
The summit will mark the end of a cycle of G20 presidencies by Global South countries, after Indonesia in 2022, India in 2023 and Brazil in 2024. The next country to take on the presidency will be the US.
