South Africa’s Ramaphosa outlines vision for G-20 presidency

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country will use its presidency of the Group of 20 nations to foster global solidarity and cooperation, tackle the excessive debt burden of developing nations, step up the fight against climate change and promote “green industrialisation.”

“The rights and freedoms of one people cannot really be separated from the rights and freedoms of all people in the world,” Ramaphosa said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “This is the foundation on which solidarity is built, and we will seek to spread this message and get it fully embraced by the G-20.”

South Africa assumed the leadership of the G-20 from Brazil in December, the first African nation to do so, and is due to host a summit of its leaders in Johannesburg in November before handing over the mantle to the US. The priorities outlined by Ramaphosa contrast with those of American President Donald Trump, who has vowed to place his nation’s interests first and expressed skepticism about climate change.

Countries in the so-called Global South are confronting the fallout of global warming, while facing a lack of predictable developing financing, high debt levels and vulnerability to pandemics, according to the South African leader.

“We need a G-20 framework on green industrialisation and investments” that ensures critical minerals are processed close to their source of extraction, he said. “We also need the development of low-carbon manufacturing value chains which can support decarbonisation and industrial development.”

Africa’s external debt climbed to more than $650 billion, and debt-servicing costs reached almost $90 billion in 2024, according to the United Nations. That has pushed up the share of government revenue spent on loan payments at the expense of essential services like hospitals and schools.

“We intend that the G-20 in Johannesburg this year should be a forum where cooperation and collaboration amongst the leading economies in the world will be taken to a higher level,” Ramaphosa said. “Acting together we should build an inclusive, just and equal world in which all may prosper, leaving no one and no country behind.”

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