South Africa to spend nearly R700m on 2025 G20 Summit

G20 Summit

Cape Town — South Africa is set to host the G20 Summit next year, a gathering of all the world’s leading economies, and the government has set aside nearly R700 million for it.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, said the government will prioritise R691 million for the summit, despite the country facing its economic challenges, The Citizen reported.

Lamola revealed that the Sherpa meeting, foreign ministers’ meeting and the leaders’ summit will cost R497 million, while the government will also spend R194 million to host the leaders and their support staff, which will cover accommodation, and ground and air travel costs.

The amounts have not yet been finalised by the National Treasury.

The summit in South Africa will run from 27 to 28 November 2025 and will discuss global issues and coordinate policies. Lamola said South Africa would assume the presidency of the G20 on 1 December 2024, after Brazil hosted the 2024 edition on 18-19 November.

The first sherpa meeting will take place on 9-10 December 2024, with a proposal to host 130 meetings, both in-person and virtually, between 1 December 2024 and 30 November 2025.

The G20 is made up of the European Union and 19 countries –  Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkiye, United Kingdom, and the United States.

According to Politicsweb, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Ryan Smith believes funding for thr G20 Summit must be supplemented by private funding to ensure it runs well.

Smith acknowledged that South Africa’s budget was modest compared to other developing countries (India spent R1 billion to host in 2023) and while South Africa does not need to match the budgets of previous years, he said the current allocation indicates that South Africa is not competitive with its counterparts on a global stage.

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“South Africa’s G20 Summit must be a success, while not negatively impacting the fiscus or placing further pressure on an already overburdened tax base,” he said.

He added that the mismanagement of the economy under the African National Congress (ANC) over the past two decades has stifled economic growth and slashed domestic budgets, which is also hindering its international obligations.

The DA said it will submit a list of expected outcomes from the G20 Summit to Ramaphosa to ensure money spent on the Summit brings benefits to South African people through job creation and economic growth. He said the G20 was a crucial international forum as it was a way for developed and developing worlds to come together for sustainable goal development.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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