SA hosts the G20, but can a country in crisis lead the world?

TOMORROW, 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.

- CHLOE MALULEKE

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

Tomorrow, the organisation Women for Change is expected to 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?