News Briefs 20 June 2025
South Africa’s G20 Presidency
What the G20 can do to help countries share electricity
South Africa’s G20 presidency aims to establish at least three projects to share energy across borders in Africa within the next 10 years.
South Africa holds the presidency of the G20 this year. The group is made up of 19 of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the African Union. A priority of South Africa’s G20 presidency is African connectivity: promoting cross-border energy trade and regional power pools as a way to share electricity across borders on the continent. David Phaho and Steven Mathetsa of the African Energy Leadership Centre outlined how South Africa could utilise its presidency of the G20 to promote regional renewable energy sharing.
What is a regional power pool?
A regional energy power pool is where countries in a region share electricity via interconnected grids. Electricity can be generated in one country but transmitted to other countries.
On the African continent, there are currently five regional power pools in different stages of development and operation. The Southern African Power Pool is an energy collaboration between countries in the Southern African Development Community. It was set up in 1995 and is regarded as the most developed power pool in Africa. The strategic intent behind the Southern African Power Pool was to create a common power grid and market for electricity in the Southern African Development Community. It is fully operational with countries sharing electricity. Twelve of the 16 Southern African Development Community countries are connected.
Also currently operating in Africa is the Eastern African Power Pool, formed by 11 countries. The West African Power Pool connects the public and private power companies of 14 countries. The other two power pools are the Central Africa Power Pool (Pool Energetique De L’Afrique Centrale) and the North African Power Pool (also known as Comité Maghrébin de l’Electricité).
Wits 18 June 2025
South Africa’s G20 moment: Turning the youth unemployment crisis into a global skilling pact
In November 2025, the world’s most powerful economies will convene in South Africa for the first G20 Summit ever held on African soil.
This gathering arrives not as a ceremonial event but as a critical juncture, demanding moral clarity and economic courage. South Africa is confronting a generational emergency: youth unemployment at 46.1%, a labour force increasingly marginalised and an economy teetering on stagnation.
What will it signify for the G20 to assemble in the world’s most unequal country and depart without addressing the profound disparities affecting its youth?
This moment necessitates more than rhetoric. It calls for a transformative pact.
Under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability”, South Africa’s G20 presidency presents a unique opportunity to galvanise global cooperation around Africa’s most pressing and strategic asset, its young population.
The 2025 Summit could serve as the birthplace of a Global Skills Pact, aiming to address unemployment, foster economic inclusion and promote shared prosperity.
IOL 20 June 2025