By Lehlohonolo Lehana, Live from Nasrec.
The World leaders are gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital, this weekend for the annual Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit – the first ever to be held in an African country.
Despite the drama over the US attendance, Johannesburg has been buzzing with activity all week in preparation for the summit.
Some of the most notable names attending the summit include: China’s Premier Li Qiang, French President Emmanuel Macron, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The leaders’ summit marks the culmination of the host country’s yearlong stewardship and usually ends with a non-binding leaders’ declaration. In Brazil last November, leaders issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by a 2030 deadline.
South Africa has held the presidency since November 2024 and will hand over to the US on November 30, 2025. This weekend’s meeting will take place over two days from Saturday, November 22, at Johannesburg’s 150,000 square-metre Nasrec Expo Centre, the country’s largest convention centre.
The G20 is a group of 19 countries that includes the richest but also the top developing economies in the world. The European Union and the African Union, which joined in 2023, are also members, making it now a group of 21.
It was formed in 1999 and unlike the Group of Seven, which only includes the richest democracies, it offers some developing countries a forum to raise their problems.
Its focus is the global economy and international development, though it has no charter or permanent secretariat — unlike organizations such as the United Nations. It also doesn’t issue binding decisions and critics say there’s no meaningful mechanism for it to put words into action.
The G20 often struggles to reach real consensus because of the different interests of the big powers like the U.S., China and Russia, as well as those of Western European nations.
The leaders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund typically attend G20 summits as guests.
The U.S. will take over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa and while the world’s biggest economy will boycott the talks, a representative from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa will attend a formal handover ceremony at the end of the summit, a White House official said.
The country holding the G20 presidency gets to set the agenda for the annual summit.
South Africa wants climate change and disaster relief, financing green energy transition, easing debt levels for poor countries and addressing global inequality to be priorities for the two-day meeting.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of G20.