The opportunities for South Africa in the G20 year

The year 2025 is going to be very different from what we experienced in 2024.

- Theo Venter

In the previous year almost half of the global population was subject to elections and we had several surprising outcomes.

There will be fewer elections in 2025, but some of the developments of 2024 will only come to fruition this year, such as the recent inauguration of US President Donald Trump for his second non-consecutive four-year term.

In South Africa, we will continue to watch the functioning of the Government of National Unity (GNU), but everything will be dominated by the role that the G20 will play this year, since South Africa holds the chair for 2025 and will facilitate all the meetings from February 2025 until the G20 Summit in November 2025.

VUCA ENVIRONMENT

We are still facing a VUCA environment where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity will increase with the re-emergence of Trump onto the international stage.

Even more significant will be the fact that the US will take over the G20 chair in December 2025 for 2026. That almost certainly means that the American president will attend the G20 Summit in November 2025 in Johannesburg.

Apart from all the government-to-government planning during this year, there will also be a parallel B20 process where businesses from the G20 countries will also have several meetings and joint ventures between the G20 and the B20.