In the following week, South Africa will step onto one of the biggest diplomatic stages in the world. For the first time in history, an African nation will host the G20. On paper, it is a triumph, a symbolic moment for a continent long pushed to the margins of global decision-making, but beneath the celebrations, a painful truth sits heavily in the national consciousness. South Africa is a country in crisis, and no summit, no declaration and no presidential handshakes can hide that.

The G20 arrives at a time when South Africans are angrier and more disillusioned than they have been since the end of apartheid. Every day online, in taxis, in offices, in WhatsApp groups, the frustration is the same, the ANC has failed. Unemployment sits at 31.9%, the highest of all G20 members. Load shedding may have eased, but basic services remain broken. Municipalities are collapsing, water systems are crumbling, and crime thrives in the gaps left by failing institutions. And while political leaders prepare to address inequality, climate financing and global reforms for the cameras, women in this country are fighting for their lives. 

A Nation Holding Its Breath

On 21 November, the organisation Women for Change will lead a national shutdown, demanding that gender-based violence be declared a national disaster. The timing is strategic. How can South Africa host a gathering of the world’s most powerful governments while its own women are dying at rates more commonly associated with war zones? How can the state claim global leadership when it cannot guarantee the most basic human right; safety?

Every week, new names flash through the headlines, some stay with us like Uyinene and Olorato, others fade into the never ending abyss of mothers, daughters, students and children who have lost their lives in the hands of men. The grief is relentless, and the public anger is reaching a boiling point. South Africans know these crimes are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of a government that has lost control. They are symptoms of a society where the gap between political performance and lived reality has grown unbridgeably wide.

The Disconnect Between Diplomacy and Reality

At a recent engagement hosted by the UCT Graduate School of Business, the Public Protector Koleka Gcalaka, captured the moment with startling clarity: “Nothing we do at the G20, without a bedrock of values, will bring tangible transformation to South Africa.” That statement should sting, because it is true.

Diplomacy cannot fix what corruption has hollowed out. Communiqués cannot repair service delivery. High-level panels cannot restore public trust. South Africa may be sitting at the G20 table, but the moral authority required to lead is slipping through its fingers.

The irony is almost painful because when South Africa hosts the G20, we do not sit alone. We sit as Africa. We speak for a continent. That responsibility demands credibility, yet the government that represents us is the same one South Africans are begging to be removed from power.

Cyril Ramaphosa and the Crisis of Confidence

President Cyril Ramaphosa was once sold to the nation as the great reformer, the man who would stabilise institutions, clean up the mess of state capture, and rebuild confidence. Six years later, the public mood is nothing short of despair. Cyril has given us endless promises, minimal delivery,  commissions of inquiry with no consequences, economic stagnation disguised by technical jargon. Cyril is a president who speaks of renewal but governs with restraint, compromise and caution, even as institutions collapse around him.

International observers have grown more vocal too, questioning whether the ANC still possesses the capacity or political will to govern effectively. When the World Bank and rating agencies critique South Africa’s governance failures, it is not ideological, it is empirical. 

Does the G20 Still Matter?

Globally, scepticism is growing about whether the G20 is still capable of real change. Too often, meetings end with grand declarations but limited action. Calls for fairer financing, climate justice, technology transfer and equitable trade circulate every year, yet global inequalities widen. If powerful states cannot move beyond rhetoric, how effectively can South Africa leverage the platform?

If anything, South Africa’s hosting year should force a deeper question: What is the purpose of global leadership when domestic leadership is collapsing?

This is not only South Africa’s dilemma. Many G20 countries face democratic erosion, polarisation, corruption and failing governance at home. But South Africa’s crisis is more acute, more visible, and more damning, because its problems are not theoretical. They are lived daily by millions.

A Mirror Held to the Nation

South Africa hosting the G20 should have been a moment of continental pride. Instead, it has become a mirror, one reflecting a government out of touch, a society on edge, and citizens who have lost patience with excuses. And yet, something important is happening beneath the despair. Civil society is rising. Women are mobilising. Young people are refusing silence. Communities are organising where the state has retreated. These movements may not hold political office, but they hold something more powerful; legitimacy.

When South Africa walks into the G20 Leaders’ Summit on the 22nd – 23rd of November, the world will see the official delegation, but the true representation of this country lies in the millions who are demanding accountability, justice, safety and dignity. Global leadership begins at home, and until the South African government rebuilds the values it has allowed to decay, (transparency, service, protection and justice)  no summit, however grand, will be enough. The G20 may be arriving, but the country it enters is at a boiling point. The world will watch the speeches. South Africans will watch what happens after the lights go down.

Written By: Chloe Maluleke

Associate at BRICS+ Consulting Group 

Russia & Middle East Specialist

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