This week marks the historic moment when SA becomes the first African state to host the G20 summit.
With more than a dozen heads of state from the world’s major economies expected to descend on our shores for the international forum, there is cautious optimism that major global issues such as inequality will get the attention they deserve.
This optimism is borne out of the fact that those who will converge on Nasrec account for about 85% of global gross domestic product — a significant power — to influence change for the benefit of two-thirds of the world’s population represented at the summit.
The meeting of global leaders in SA to discuss policies on global economic and financial challenges, climate change and sustainable development represents a huge opportunity to draw the world’s attention to the impact of the sustained effects of inequality.
Despite SA’s progressive policies since the advent of democracy, our country remains the most unequal society in the world, characterised by high levels of poverty, unemployment, crime and low economic growth.
According to the World Bank, SA continues to be plagued by unequal access to quality education and healthcare, exacerbated by apartheid’s spatial divide that persists to this day.
These problems are not unique to SA but arguably affect our immediate neighbours equally and, to a large extent, the African continent. The hosting of the G20 summit in SA to foreground these pressing issues is a call to ensure the continent is not left behind in the world’s development.
While much of the buildup to the summit has been about who will be attending and who will not, including US President Donald Trump, the focus must remain firmly on the pressing needs of society rather than one nation.
Yes, Trump’s absence from the summit as one of the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world is a setback, but it does not spell doom and gloom. Fast-changing international relations mean the days are gone when one country held the rest of the world to ransom using its might and resources to influence global affairs.
Global cooperation on matters such as climate change, peace and security, social progress, better living standards and human rights remains the only way in which the world can prosper and become a better place for all to live.
SA must seize this moment to direct the world’s focus on ending inequality not just in our country but in Africa and, by extension, other developing nations.
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