G20 summit an opportunity to fix ailing Joburg metro

By Prof Dirk Kotzé

One of the highlights of 2025 will be the end of the year the summit of presidents and prime ministers of the G20 states is hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg. The city’s metro government is for many months already in the news for the wrong reasons, ranging from gas explosions and buildings on fire in the Central Business District, hijacked buildings or interruptions with water supply. Does it therefore have the governance capacity to manage such an event, and why was Johannesburg chosen in the first instance?

Cities (other than capital cities) have become prominent as the hosts of global events, such as the Olympic Games, the COP meetings dealing with climate change, or the hosting of international mediation and negotiation processes, such as Doha in Qatar. Even the “Africa plus One” summits in countries like Russia or Türkiye are held in cities like Sochi, St. Petersburg and Istanbul, and not in their capitals. The fact that the United Nations headquarters is in New York City and not Washington, DC is another example of the prominence of individual cities.

The same will be the case with the G20 summit in 2025 in Johannesburg/Sandton. It will be attended by the presidents of China, the USA, France, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and Türkiye, as well as the prime ministers of India, the UK, Japan, Australia, Germany, Italy, and Canada. Russia’s President Putin will most probably be represented by Foreign Minister Lavrov. The EU and AU will also be represented. Saudi Arabia will most probably be represented by its crown prince. An entourage of at least one thousand officials from the member states is also expected. It is therefore a major event.

What are the governance implications of such an event? The international practice is that the summit venue (in this case, the Sandton International Convention Centre), as well as the accommodation centres (normally 5-star hotels close to it), are demarcated and tightly secured for the duration of the summit. That will be almost the entire CBD of Sandton. Very strict security and access control will be in place. Back-up systems for electricity, water and other services should be in place. The routes to the main airports (specifically OR Tambo and Lanseria airports) where the participants arrive, will implement special diplomatic and security arrangements. The intelligence services of the biggest powers, such as the Americans, Chinese, French and Russians, will have their own deployments and also cooperate with their South African counterparts. In the past for presidential visits, the Americans have used Lanseria airport extensively for logistical purposes.

All of these arrangements establish an artificial bubble which is separated from the day-to-day dynamics of the host city. Special arrangements will be in place for Sandton CBD with backup infrastructure for all the different services. Some infrastructural improvements and cleaning of areas will possibly be done before the summit. It means that all the problems and shortcomings of Johannesburg city should not be experienced in the summit perimeter. One should mention that this approach is not unique to South Africa but is typical of most global events such as the Olympics, the FIFA Football World Cup or United Nations summits.

Over the years, in South Africa a pattern developed of how preparations for such events were implemented. They included the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup and several United Nations conferences in Durban and Johannesburg. The preparations often start quite slow and public concerns about it are widely expressed. Hectic activities close to the deadline followed while sceptics predicted an embarrassing lack of preparations. But on the day of the event, almost always and against expectations, the results are produced. Has that approach changed – only time will tell us by November.

What is important to take into consideration is that most of the South African preparations for the summit are not done by the Johannesburg Metro but by a group such as an inter-ministerial committee which coordinates several national and provincial departments. They include the Presidency, DIRCO, Public Works and the security cluster (NatJoints, SAPS, the SANDF and the intelligence groups).

Why was Johannesburg or Sandton chosen for this event when the municipal problems are well-known? The other possible options would have been Durban (eThekwini) or Cape Town. Both have well-established international convention centres. The service delivery problems of eThekwini are at the moment even more than those of Johannesburg while Cape Town is in the best position of the three. Durban’s convention centre is very close to the CBD which will be very difficult to encase in a secure bubble. It has only one international airport and is quite a distance away from the convention centre, which complicates security arrangements at this level. It is also far away from the government departments’ head offices in Pretoria which are all involved in the preparations.

Cape Town is always a popular contender for international events. Its convention centre is also close to its CBD but it does not pose the same security and service problems as in eThekwini, and it has more international standard hotels close to the venue. It has only one international airport, but it is closer to the convention centre. What counts against it is its distance away from the Pretoria government offices, and then a political consideration: the fact that the Democratic Alliance is in charge of Cape Town Metro.

A successful G20 summit in Cape Town will present the DA with the credit that it was selected ahead of ANC-run metros to host the summit. It would reinforce the DA’s claim that it is superior to the ANC in all governance aspects.

What would be the possible significance of South Africa of this summit? It can be viewed from many angles. Limiting it to the political significance, South Africa’s chairing of the group for one year means that it can incorporate part of its foreign policy objectives into the group’s agenda. For this purpose, it has chosen the theme “Solidary, Equality and Sustainability”. One can already see how it is showcased on the Group’s website (www.g20.org.za), which is aligned with South Africa’s policy objective of promoting the role of the global South in global matters.

Another political significance of a well-organised summit would be that South Africa’s status as a host of global events is strengthened. It has already demonstrated it in the past with world sports events and UN global conferences. But after the international reputational damage caused by State Capture and the economic downturn during the COVID-19 epidemic, this will be an opportunity to reaffirm its status as a host.

Finally, the G20 summit will be an opportunity for President Ramaphosa and his government members to interact with a very important global audience. It will showcase the Government of National Unity in person to them. It is therefore a very important opportunity for political marketing and strengthening of South Africa’s attraction or “soft power”.

* Prof Dirk Kotzé, Department of Political Sciences, Unisa.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.