PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar)
The 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit, the first ever held on African soil, was widely celebrated as a milestone for African agency. For two days, Johannesburg stood at the center of global governance under the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability.”
It was a moment when Africa did not simply participate in the global conversation but also directed it. The continent placed issues such as climate justice, multilateral reform, debt restructuring, and sustainable development at the forefront of the global agenda.
But as history often reminds us, progress reveals both power and fragility.
South Africa’s G20 presidency: A convergence of leadership and responsibility
South Africa’s assumption of the G20 Presidency on 1 December 2024, formalised an important moment for the continent. Although the institution operates without the complexity of more rigid multilaterals, its governance includes well-established practices that give shape and meaning to each presidency.
A rotating mandate with strategic value
Each G20 presidency determines the direction of global economic diplomacy for a year, convening meetings, steering policy debates, and framing negotiations across the Sherpa and Finance Tracks.
The Troika: A mechanism for continuity
The “Troika”, comprised of the immediate past, current, and incoming presidencies, ensures that priorities transcend annual cycles. This continuity is essential for multilateral coherence.
Agenda-setting: More than ceremony
The presiding country is responsible for defining the year’s central themes and shepherding consensus. In practice, this means setting the intellectual tone of global cooperation.
Flexibility rooted in consensus
The sequence of presidencies reflects political realities as much as regional rotation. Diplomacy, elections, and shifting global dynamics shape the consensus.
Sherpas: The technocrats behind the summit
Behind every leader’s declaration is painstaking work by Sherpas, technical advisors who negotiate language, manage divergences, and prepare the architecture of agreements long before the summit begins.
In short, South Africa’s leadership placed Africa where it has long demanded to be: not on the periphery of global governance, but at its centre.
Africa’s policy moment: From aspirations to structural reform
Amid the symbolism of Johannesburg, one document provided intellectual clarity:
The G20 Africa Expert Panel Report Growth, Debt and Development: Opportunities for a New African Partnership, chaired by Trevor Manuel, with 25 other African experts, including Carlos Lopez from Guinea-Bissau, an economist & former executive secretary of UNECA, who often says Africa should shape the global agendas and not just follow them. Indeed, Lopez always pushes for:
• Sustainable industrialisation
• Real African representation
• Reform of global financial institutions
Its significance lies in its refusal to treat Africa as an afterthought of global economics. Instead, it positions Africa as a strategic actor capable of shaping outcomes.
The report recommends:
• A Debt Service Refinancing Initiative to create breathing room without compromising sovereignty.
• A Borrowers’ Club should be established to coordinate African fiscal diplomacy, transitioning from fragmented appeals to collective bargaining.
• Transparent debt-resolution systems backed by data-sharing and reconciled records.
• A move away from an aid mentality toward investment-led growth leveraging Africa’s financial institutions.
• Deep reforms to the global financial architecture, including representation and curbs on illicit financial flows.
• Strengthening the AfCFTA and harmonised investment frameworks to intensify continental trade.
• Linking critical minerals to industrialisation and climate-resilient financing, ensuring Africa moves up the value chain.
This report positioned the summit as more than a ceremonial gathering; it became a serious forum for rethinking Africa’s development pathway.
The U.S. boycott: A stress test for Africa’s collective diplomacy
The absence of the United States, driven by political posturing and a rejection of the Summit’s priorities, was more than a diplomatic snub. It was a test of Africa’s ability to safeguard its own leadership.
Washington:
• Boycotted the Summit entirely.
• Refused support for a joint declaration, leaving only a chair’s summary.
• Dismissed the Summit’s priorities as ideologically unacceptable.
• Sent only a chargé d’affaires for ceremonial functions.
President Ramaphosa’s response was unequivocal: Africa will neither be bullied nor intimidated. And yet, the boycott exposed something deeper.
Africa’s silence: A revealing moment of vulnerability
No African government – not those grappling with debt, nor those vulnerable to climate shocks, nor even the continent’s larger economies – publicly backed South Africa. Not even the African Union.
This silence demonstrated a long-standing dilemma: economic dependence often constrains political courage.
When sovereignty is entangled with the conditionalities of loans, aid, and external financing, solidarity becomes selective. It becomes easier to retreat than to speak.
The Johannesburg declaration: Ambitious, yet exposed
The summit’s outcome document reflected Africa’s core priorities:
• climate adaptation
• equitable global governance
• biodiversity and gender equality
• food security
• infrastructure development
• debt reform
• critical mineral beneficiation
• technology transfer
But ambition alone does not resolve the contradiction: Africa knows what it wants but lacks the unified institutional power to defend it in the face of geopolitical pressure.
The expert panel report offers the tools to fix this but only if the continent acts collectively.
Debt, dependence and African agency
Africa’s debt situation is not purely financial it is political.
Johannesburg reminded the world that the continent needs innovative refinancing mechanisms, transparency, and sustainable growth strategies. Yet these same vulnerabilities feed the caution that muted African voices during the boycott.
Debt thus becomes a mirror: it reveals not only fiscal imbalance but also structural dependence.
Critical minerals and climate resilience: Africa’s leverage point
Africa is central to the global energy transition.
Its mineral wealth gives it strategic leverage, but leverage is not power unless exercised through:
• coordinated industrial policy
• local value addition
• green industrialisation strategies
• continental bargaining mechanisms
Exporting raw materials has never delivered transformation. Processing, innovation, and integration into global value chains will.
Governance reform: The mirror Africa must face
Africa’s call for democratised global governance carries moral and political legitimacy. But Johannesburg also exposed a difficult truth: continental solidarity remains inconsistent.
Tools like the Borrowers’ Club, coordinated investment frameworks, and harmonised debt management are essential not only for economic reform; they build the foundation for political unity. Without unity, Africa’s demands for fairness in global institutions ring hollow.
Media narratives and the challenge of sovereignty
Africa’s dependence on external media ecosystems shapes perceptions and reactions. The silence surrounding the boycott symbolised a deeper challenge: narratives, like economies, reflect who holds systemic power.
African-owned institutions, stronger governance, and investment-led partnerships are the pathway to restoring narrative sovereignty.
Conclusion: Triumph demands more than celebration
The 2025 Johannesburg Summit was historic, but history is not made by symbolism alone.
• Unity must be institutional, not episodic.
• Agency must be exercised, not invoked.
• Power must be backed by the courage to use it.
The G20 Africa Expert Panel Report provides a structural roadmap from debt reform to industrial transformation for converting Africa’s potential into durable influence.
Johannesburg was not just Africa’s stage. It was Africa’s mirror.
Africa’s voice will matter globally only when it resonates with coherence, cooperation, and institutional confidence.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or this newspaper but solely our personal views as citizens and Pan-Africanists.
