News Briefs 12 October 2025
South Africa’s G20 Presidency
South Africa remains ‘upbeat’ on US G20 participation despite high-level snubs
The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Alvin Botes, expressed confidence today that the United States would continue to participate in current G20 meetings, despite lingering concerns over a “watered-down” American contribution.
Deputy Minister Botes was speaking at a G20 dialogue hosted by the Southern African Liaison Office, part of ongoing discussions aimed at determining how Africa can best leverage South Africa’s G20 Presidency to address the continent’s complex challenges.
Key issues on the agenda include governance, slow economic growth, rising poverty, and runaway unemployment.
America’s engagement in this year’s events has been questioned following the absence of several key White House officials from previous gatherings in South Africa.
This includes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who skipped the first G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Johannesburg in March due to a policy disagreement with Pretoria.
EWN 07 October 2025
Africa calls on G20 to match climate ambition with equity, finance, and policy space
African climate think tanks, regional officials and government envoys met in Johannesburg on 9–10 October for a G20 Expert-Level Climate Informal Consultation convened by AUDA-NEPAD and Kenya’s Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change. Their message was direct: that if the G20 is serious about a global transition that leaves no region behind, it must open decision-making spaces, accelerate institutional reform and deliver finance and technology on terms that reflect Africa’s development priorities.
The consultations surfaced a practical problem that has become policy orthodoxy in African capitals: ambition without finance is a slogan, not a strategy. Experts in Johannesburg reiterated that Africa’s climate agenda is inseparable from its development agenda, from jobs and industrialisation to food security and debt sustainability, and asked the G20 to commit instruments that are concessional, predictable and tailored to the continent’s circumstances. The statement from the forum frames those needs around four complementary asks: policy space for differentiated transitions, scaled concessional finance for adaptation and mitigation, technology transfer and local manufacturing for green industries, and reform of global financial and debt rules to reduce the cost of capital for African borrowers.
The arithmetic behind the urgency is stark. Recent assessments place Africa’s climate investment needs to 2030 in the order of $2.5–$2.8 trillion, while tracked climate finance flows to the continent remain measured in the tens of billions annually, not the trillions required to change fundamentals on the ground. The Climate Policy Initiative documents that flows were roughly $44 billion in 2021/22, a four-to-five-order magnitude gap compared with aggregate needs. At the same time, African governments are servicing growing debt burdens that eat into fiscal space: the African Development Bank and other analysts report debt service and related pressures in the hundreds of billions, a structural constraint that makes concessionally and currency-risk mitigation non-negotiable for many projects.
What makes Johannesburg more than a talking shop is timing and leverage. The African Union now sits at the G20 table as a permanent participant, and South Africa holds the G20 presidency for 2025, creating a window in which African priorities can be elevated from addenda to agenda items. This opens practical pathways: pilots of locally anchored Just Energy Transition Partnerships, compacts on critical minerals that pair extraction with local manufacturing, and regional instruments that underwrite cross-border infrastructure and pooled procurement, all schemes that were discussed in Johannesburg as forms of partnership, not charity.
ASM 11 October 2025
South African policymakers agree on lowering inflation target, timing still an issue
South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Thursday that the central bank and National Treasury agreed that the country’s inflation target should be lowered, but they were still discussing when to make the change.
Kganyago surprised financial markets in July by saying the SARB would effectively target 3% inflation, rather than the formal 3-6% range set by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
Godongwana rebuked Kganyago for his “unilateral announcement”, though the two officials later issued a joint statement saying they were on the same page.
Addressing lawmakers on Thursday, Kganyago said: “There isn’t a disagreement about the lowering of the target; it’s a question of timing.”
He acknowledged the SARB’s communication over the target was not what it was supposed to be and said he and Godongwana had met and told their teams to “go tie down these loose ends”.
“That’s why you will find our (joint) statement does not say by this date, as soon as it’s practically possible. And the poor chaps are working very hard to make sure that all those loose ends are tied,” Kganyago said.
Reuters 09 October 2025
In a complex global environment, South Africa’s G20 Presidency represents a beacon of hope in the advancement of partnerships and collaboration in driving solutions to global challenges.
Under the overarching theme of “Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability”, South Africa’s G20 Presidency has underscored the importance of leaving no one behind in building a better world.
The Development Working Group (DWG) has emphasised this during the course of the year, bringing together G20 Development Ministers, invited states, and representatives of multilateral institutions, the private sector and civil society to strengthen cooperation on the path to achieving inclusive and sustainable development.
The DWG meetings and the Ministerial Meeting on Development, which have taken place during South Africa’s G20 Presidency, have been a necessary bridge for developed, developing, and low-income countries to address global challenges and mobilise collective action to accelerate development.
The meetings have emphasised the urgent need to build an inclusive world by strengthening domestic resource mobilisation, mobilising finance for development through reducing illicit financial flows, advancing inclusive social protection systems and aligning development finance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
eNCA 08 October 2025
OSF challenges African political parties to capitalise on South Africa’s G20 Presidency
The Open Society Foundations (OSF) has challenged political parties across Africa to capitalise on South Africa’s G20 Presidency, calling on leaders to intensify their mobilisation for the continent’s growth and development.
The renewed calls for an African agenda to take centre stage at the bloc’s year-long discussions come ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit set to be held in Johannesburg next month.
This marks the first time an African state has hosted the annual meeting since the bloc was founded more than two decades ago.
The Southern African Liaison Office hosted a G20 dialogue on Tuesday, which included debates by a number of organisations about South Africa’s ability to lead Africa’s interests within the global economic governance framework.
Managing Director at the Open Society Foundations, Brian Kagoro, expressed disappointment with the level of continental engagement thus far.
“I feel that the continent and the SADC neighbours did not come to the party, even if they are not members of the G20. I think the continent, including ECOWAS and EAC, did not come to the party.”
Kagoro stated. “It’s as though they are waiting for South Africa to blow it so they can say ‘you see’ or they are waiting for Africa to succeed so they can say ‘Africa has done it’.”
EWN 07 October 2025