Last week, in Davos, President Cyril Ramaphosa set out a G20 agenda that supports more muscular measures to address climate change and speaks for diversity and a cooperative world.
This is in sharp contrast to the Trump doctrine that has emerged in the past week. US President Donald Trump has dug in against climate change mitigation and pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, the global plan to bring down emissions.
He has unleashed what commentators call the “animal spirits” of Silicon Valley. He promises a presidency that is more strongman than cooperative and has set his face against diversity.
The US government will recognise only two genders, and the signals Trump sent have seen many US blue chips drop their DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and ESG (environmental, social and governance) plans.
In Davos, speaking as G20 chairperson, Ramaphosa set out a tangential agenda.
“As we confront the challenges of the 21st century — from climate change to pandemics, from poverty to terrorism, from migration to artificial intelligence — we are again called upon to harness that most powerful and that most enduring of human attributes: mutually beneficial cooperation and collaboration.
“This is a time of rising geopolitical tensions, unilateralism, nationalism, protectionism, isolationism, rising debt levels affecting poor countries in the world and a declining sense of common purpose,” he said.
“Yet, this is a moment when we should be standing together as a global community to resolve the problems that confront humanity by ending the wars and conflicts that are causing such hardship and misery to many people around the world.”
Sustainable development
While the Trump administration will drop inclusion and equity, Ramaphosa said: “In the world we inhabit today, the pursuit of equality and the practice of solidarity cannot be separated from sustainable development.”
And while Trump has threatened punitive tariffs on the BRICS bloc of mainly developing countries should they introduce a currency (not on the cards), the G20 would seek more trade deals with the wealthy world, said Ramaphosa.
“As the G20 we need deliberate and coordinated efforts to focus on inclusive growth based on responsive trade and investment to grow the incomes of poor nations and the poorest in society and to ensure equal access to opportunities, especially for women and young people.”
The most intricate G20 negotiations are likely to be on climate change. Days after Trump (again) pulled out of the Paris Agreement and made an inauguration speech that included an injunction to oil and gas companies to “drill baby, drill”, Ramaphosa said the opposite.
“It is therefore in the interests of all countries to act with greater urgency to reduce global emissions — and for industrialised countries to support the climate actions that poorer countries must necessarily take in line with and support of decisions of UN climate change summits. Another of South Africa’s priorities for its G20 presidency is therefore to mobilise finance for a just energy transition,” he said.
In November, Trump is expected to arrive in Johannesburg for the G20 meeting ahead of the leadership of the powerful body being handed over to the US in 2026. Both he and Ramaphosa, as chairperson of the G20 for 2025, have set out the parameters of the meeting’s different poles.
While Trump heads the pack of global strongman leaders, Ramaphosa has placed South Africa in the camp of the diminishing progressive world. At a Brand SA-hosted meeting in Davos, he said the G20 would “amplify voices that haven't been heard”.
He added: “At a time when the world and [many of] its leaders are trying to tear each other apart, we should continue to be a shining example of living up to the values of solidarity, equality and sustainable development.”
Back home, Ramaphosa’s decisions to sign the Expropriation Bill, the NHI and the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act into law in the past few months should be read as how he wants to create a legacy as he gets into his second term.
He wants to be remembered as a progressive leader on land, education and health. His calculations do not include whether the state his party has created can implement with purpose and principle the tenets of the three laws. DM