Carry that G20 energy straight into December

IN a matter of days, South Africa will step sprightly into the full swing of the festive season. As the famous aphorism goes: Ke Dezemba Boss! (It’s December Boss!) But this year’s festive season will be particularly special.

This December, we’ll be riding a wave that only a few countries get to experience. The afterglow of the momentously successful G20 Summit will be key grounds for celebration.

The iconic G20 Summit didn’t just put us on the map for a few days; it made clear that our talent, imagination, and innovation are forces to be reckoned with. Now, as millions prepare to travel home, with life spilling into every square, street, and sun-soaked beach, we have a rare opportunity: to channel this global attention into momentum that lasts far beyond the holidays.

This year, the G20 — for the very first time — was held on African soil, in our very own backyard: Johannesburg. Leaders across the world lay their heads in South African beds, and were reminded that our nation is more than just a summit venue — it’s a living, breathing story of ingenuity, ambition, and unbridled potential.

Our cultures, our traditions, our arts, our landscapes, and so much more were on full display. From our minerals and ecosystems to traditional knowledge systems and climate solutions, our society reminded the world to never underestimate us.

We South Africans know the boundless talent and creativity that brews in our communities, but it was especially significant to spotlight our proficiencies when the world was watching. From the youth inventing energy sources from everyday waste, to the child compiling electric cars and working robots from scrap metal, to farmers using indigenous African ecological practices to enhance agri-tech advancements, this G20 Presidency certainly reminded the world how inventive, resilient, and full of potential we truly are.

December, our festive season, gives us a stage to turn this prime visibility into real movement. Roads, railways, and airports overflow. Markets, beaches, and galleries hum with life. All our festive gatherings — from formal events to casual braais — are a chance to showcase talent, collaborate, and attract attention that lasts long into the future.

Creative industries are always ready to shine. Although artists, performers, designers, and innovators often struggle to access materials, sponsorships, or critical platforms, December gives them space to connect, collaborate, and make their work impossible to ignore. Entrepreneurs, job-seeking youths and innovators across our society who are actively spearheading tech, social, and cultural initiatives are now visible to investors, partners, and communities. Their work proves that potential can’t be limited by circumstance.

Women sit at the centre of all this. They carry disproportionate burdens in almost every facet of life — socially, economically, politically and institutionally. In fact, women-led households constitute almost half of all the homes in our nation, yet they still contend with gender pay gaps and discrimination and patriarchal aggressions. Despite this, women continue to find ways to strategically and meaningfully empower themselves.

A mere day before the G20, women made their power visible, both nationally and beyond our borders. The G20 Women’s Shutdown, protesting the widespread scourge of gender-based violence, was not merely symbolic; it was a long-overdue confrontation of the several senseless deaths that women die in our society.

And what has been achieved by the protest is a fact that has been evident to us for decades now: gender-based violence is absolutely, unequivocally, a national disaster. And finally, the mask has come off. There’s no downplaying this monster.

What’s worse is that the children are watching. Schools may be closed, but their minds are open. They see the violence, the microaggressions, the quiet cruelties adults pretend aren’t there. But they also see our society, our endless talents, our innovation in communities, creativity in the arts, science in ecosystems, possibilities in agriculture, and connection through digital and social projects.

They are absorbing, imagining, and dreaming, and the festive season must be used as a prime opportunity to nurture this. Kids across our society deserve to know that opportunity isn’t abstract — it’s something you sketch, mould, and bring to life.

Food security intersects with opportunity. Grocery prices rise, households stretch budgets, and small farmers struggle to keep up. This is a prime time to spotlight the nationwide plague of food insecurity. As millions head home for the holidays, we feed into local agriculture and push climate-conscious farming forward. And it’s in December that all this quiet, everyday power has the chance to burst into something bigger.

Tourism is another lever. South Africa is at its most alive during this season: beaches, heritage sites, markets, and cultural festivals attract attention locally, continentally and internationally. The G20 reminded the world of our uniqueness. December is the time to convert curiosity into engagement: longer stays, repeat visits, and broader investment in creative, agricultural, and industrial sectors.

Small and medium businesses, especially, have long been constrained by inequalities and post-Covid-19 pressures. The festive season, amplified by G20 momentum, allows them to be seen, to attract investment, and to thrive in unimaginable ways.

Digital and technological innovation was not only a key point in our progressive G20 agenda, they are the lifeblood of the scores of unemployed people in our nation. From online platforms and hackathons, to entrepreneurial programmes — we can build skills, create jobs, and expand opportunity, especially for youth in underserved areas. But engagement with the everyday South African, investing in the unique needs of our vast array of communities, is what will make all the difference.

So as we slide into December with sun on our shoulders and a rare national momentum at our backs, the task is simple: Don’t let this energy fade. Let this festive season be more than a breather — let it be a spark. Because if the G20 showed the world who we are, then December is the stage for our next big move.

We’ve been seen, we’ve been heard, and now it’s time to act — to take that visibility and turn it into something that lasts. The G20 was a moment, not the story. We are. Momentum is here. Potential is endless. It’s up to us to use it.

* Tswelopele Makoe is a gender and social justice activist and editor at Global South Media Network. She is a researcher, columnist, and an Andrew W Mellon scholar at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, UWC.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.

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