Minister Ronald Lamola: Media Briefing focusing on South Africa’s G20 Presidency

Good Morning to members of the media, esteemed colleagues, and fellow citizens. Please allow me to extend a very warm welcome to you all at our Headquarters, the OR Tambo Building. We have invited you today so we may brief the people of South Africa, through you, on the progress made thus far in our 1 year-long South African Presidency of the G20. 

We are now in the sixth month, or halfway into South Africa’s G20 Presidency, a historic responsibility we assumed on 1 December 2024. As the first African nation to lead this bloc, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing a world grounded in Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability, albeit in a volatile and polarized geopolitical climate

Progress Report: Five Months of Purposeful Leadership

Technical Working Groups

Since officially assuming the G20 Presidency on 1 December 2024, South Africa has convened 51 meetings across all the Sherpa Track and Finance Track Working Groups, including the three Task Forces established by our Presidency. These meetings discussed some of the most important and urgent challenges facing the global community, reflecting our strong determination to seek sustainable and innovative solutions through dialogue, collaboration and cooperation.

The ongoing G20 discussions are aimed at advancing South Africa’s overarching priorities, namely;

• Strengthening disaster resilience and response.
• Ensuring debt sustainability for low-income countries.
• Mobilising finance for a just energy transition.
• Harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

You will recall that our Task Forces are focusing on

• Inclusive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Employment, and Reduced Inequality;
• Food Security, and
• Reduced Inequality and Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development.

Throughout the working groups, we are also championing broader and cross cutting issues such as (1) reform of the multilateral trading system and the international financial architecture, including strengthening of multilateral development banks, (2) seeking solutions to addressing Climate Change, (3) promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, (4) advocating for Gender Equality, (5) pursing enhanced international tax cooperation and addressing illicit financial flows and (6) exploring ways to  increase the predictability, scale and flows of climate finance, which is critical to enable the Just Transition and mitigation and adaptation efforts.

From the recent meetings it is important to note that whilst there are divergences on some issues, as to be expected in multilateral engagements, there is still overwhelming support for South Africa’s priorities by G20 members. Furthermore, when our G20 Sherpa briefed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on our G20 priorities in March 2025, the meeting also expressed strong support for our G20 Presidency agenda.

G20@20 Review

At the 2024 Rio de Janeiro Summit, G20 Leaders made a commitment to “evaluate the G20's first full cycle of presidencies under South Africa’s Presidency and, with full respect to the principles agreed at the Cannes Summit in 2011, provide recommendations to the second cycle, including a roadmap for future presidencies.” They also reiterated their ambition for the G20 to remain the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
In this spirit, South Africa’s 2025 G20 Presidency is championing a review (“G20@20”) that reflects on the G20’s achievements and working methods since 2008 as a proposed Leaders’-level outcome. This review was welcomed by G20 Members at the first Sherpa Meeting in Sandton in December 2024. Further, the G20@20 Review Roadmap was presented at the 2nd Sherpa meeting that took place in early April 2025.

The G20@20 review will reflect the diverse national views of G20 Members and permanent Guest countries, including through a survey, a dedicated discussion at the third G20 Sherpa Meeting in June, and written consultations. The findings of the survey, compendium and Sherpa discussion will be synthesised into a high-level report for presentation and proposed endorsement by G20 Leaders at the Johannesburg Summit.

A Commitment to Rules-based Multilateralism

South Africa’s G20 Presidency stands firm in the belief that multilateral cooperation is not optional—it is imperative. Unilateral actions that undermine the rules-based order risk reversing decades of progress. It is for this reason that the 1st G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in February 2025:

• Noted that 2025 will mark the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations and reaffirmed the commitment to strengthening multilateralism and that all states must act in a manner consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter.
• Underscored the need to reform international system of global governance, inclusive of the international financial architecture, the multilateral trading system, and the multilateral development banks.
• Further stressed the need to reform the United Nations to make it fit for purpose and relevant to the current international reality. This includes the Security Council.
• Noted with concern the slow progress being made in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. To this end, the meeting stressed on the need for urgent action to accelerate efforts and reaffirm the G20’s strong commitment to the SDGs in line with the theme, Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.

In addition, at the 2nd G20 Sherpa meeting held in April 2025, many delegations, including South Africa, expressed serious concerns about the resurgence of protectionism and unilateral measures that undermine the multilateral trading system and reaffirmed need for collective action to:

• Honour and strengthen our WTO commitments, including the principle of Special and Differential Treatment, while advancing necessary reforms.
• Resolve trade disputes through constructive dialogue and established mechanisms.
• Ensure trade policies actively support sustainable development objectives, particularly Africa's industrialisation and transition to value-added production.

An Inclusive and People Centered G20

The majority of the 13 Official G20 Engagement Groups have been constituted, have defined their priorities and are working on their deliverables. We have also had several consultive engagements with local and international civil society organisations around the hosting of the Second G20 Social Summit, following the first such initiative under Brazil’s Presidency last year in Rio de Janeiro.

The Engagement Groups and Social Summit are critical to ensuring that the G20 agenda is more democratic inclusive and comprehensive and that those people who are impacted by the decisions of the G20 are heard. At the forthcoming Sherpa meeting to be held in the last week of June 2025 in Sun City, in the North-West province, Engagement Groups will have the opportunity to make their formal submissions to the G20 on issues they propose for inclusion in the G20 Leaders’ Declaration to be negotiated and adopted by Leaders in November 2025.

In the current geopolitical and geoeconomic global headwinds, there are high expectations on South Africa to deliver positive outcomes, advance innovative solutions to global challenges, and re-build the trust of the international community in the G20.  

Cultural Diplomacy: “Africa’s Call”

I am proud to announce the release, on 9 May of “Africa’s Call,” a song that embodies and reflects the spirit of Ubuntu, our African identity, and our G20 Presidency’s mission. This anthem, now streaming globally, is a reminder that culture and our common humanity unite us even as we debate and sometimes disagree on policies. I invite all citizens to listen, share, and let its message of hope resonate in all communities across South Africa.

The Road Ahead: Priorities for Action

Over the next few months, until 7 November 2025, the Sherpa and Finance Track Working Groups will continue to meet to discuss their priorities and deliverables and negotiate and issue Ministerial declarations.

The Third Sherpa meeting is expected to further discuss geopolitical issues and the contribution of the G20 to the global development agenda and in fostering equitable global governance.  

We are also planning to host two important meetings outside South Africa:

• Firstly, a G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) meeting in Addis Ababa in July 2025. You will recall that during our Presidency, we are pursuing a broadened and effective G20 CwA, which includes increasing the number of participating African Union members.
• Secondly, we will host the second G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New York in September 2025, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week. This will be the second time ever that a G20 meeting is held at the United Nations, after Brazil’s historic hosting of the same meeting last year. The United Nations, at of core of which is the General Assembly, with its universal representation where every country participates on an equal footing, is and will always remain the chief deliberative, and policymaking and representative organ of global community of nations. Therefore, the work we do in the G20, an informal grouping, seeks to support, contribute to and reinforce already existing processes of the United Nations and its organs in a complimentary manner.

We are also in discussions to host meetings in two other African countries later this year.

Finally, we are undertaking logistical preparations for the hosting of the Leaders’ Summit at NASREC in November 2025. As you can imagine, the Summit is a major project requiring significant planning, coordination and project management. Fortunately, we have put together an excellent team, from across government and the private sector to oversee and implement this successful Summit. We believe that we are on track.

To the people of South Africa, this Presidency is your platform. Engage with it, own it, and hold us accountable. 

Progress is not defined by the number of meetings we host or by the number of documents we deliver. Progress is defined by finding concrete and collective solutions to our challenges, and by how we improve the lives of all citizens, in particular the most vulnerable and most needy.

We remain guided by the wisdom of Madiba, who taught us that “it is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.”

I thank you. 

#GovZAUpdates