The G20: Curated prosperity amid lived poverty

As stated in this column last week, I believe we are at the end of the era of ‘the rich boys' club. The nauseating fact that Johannesburg could clean itself up for a three-day visit by rich people and ignore the plight of its own people for thirty years should never be okay with us. It reeks of callousness and contempt. This is the 2010 FIFA World Cup all over again. It's The Truman Show on steroids. 

We don't become better as a nation by pretence. We become better by deliberate intention. The water cuts, power outages, broken municipal systems and potholes will all be back this morning. This is how politics are conducted in the new era.

It's all performative. Nothing is substantive. It is not based on fact or intention. South Africa is a masterclass on performative politics. Nasrec looked incredible, and the G20 attendees and guests were all impressed and lauded the 'first G20 on African soil.’ For the sceptical elite, South Africa is always a curious place. They love our authentic Big 5 and our curated Big 3: Sandton, Kruger National Park and the Atlantic Seaboard. The rest of the country is a war zone that they don't dare venture into.  

This hypocrisy is entirely politically designed. Our politicians have created a South African story that rich people and wealthy foreigners love, and one that the rest of us live in. The Canadian government issued a travel advisory to its citizens on 13 November 2025, just 9 days before the start of the G20 summit, stating: "Exercise a high degree of caution in South Africa due to the significant level of serious crime.” 

The truth is that South Africa can function on a much higher level as a government. The FIFA World Cup and the G20 proved it. But the 'Yor, I'm tired now" political attitude is what puts the kibosh on all our progress.

Because we have a despicable disregard for our fellow citizens, especially poorer citizens, we tend to think it’s okay to provide them with a lesser quality of service, but we will go all out for visitors. The psychological damage of performing for the wealthy while neglecting the poor is part of the lingering damage done by our Apartheid enslavement. 

It's of absolutely no importance that Africa is mentioned 82 times in the 30-page 2025 G20 Leaders' Declaration. We keep celebrating the wrong things! None of those statements in the G20 Declaration is binding on any of its members.

It is again purely performative. If there is no intention to implement it when they are all back in their respective countries through trade, legislative and policy processes, it all becomes meaningless. The G20 has no power to hold any of these world leaders to these declarations.

While President Ramaphosa is rightfully applauded for his deft handling of the G20, its outcomes, and for putting the tantrum-prone USA to bed, he has again failed to do justice to his own people. While much talk focuses on the fact that Africa's first G20 hosted up to 2,000 global business leaders and organisation heads from about 25 countries, representing hundreds of companies across the G20 and beyond, it by no means indicates that his government will continue with a clean and safe Johannesburg, one with water and electricity for all its people, from today onwards.

 The tragedy is that politicians still seek association and validation from the elite. When will there ever be an invitation to the other side to be in the room? When will housing, climate, and justice activists ever be invited by their government as its partners, to sit in the same room when their government meets with the elite? The answer is never. Because politicians don’t know how to think like that.

That is why Ibrahim Traoré wears the red beret, like his murdered countryman Thomas Sankara did. It’s not a piece of head dress. It’s a pledge. We need a class of leaders committed to undoing the damage of new colonialism’s elitism. Global change approved by the risk-averse elite and based on conditions set by wealthy nations is not change. It does nothing to undo past damage and injustice.

It is predictable that Donald Trump will undo everything decided in Johannesburg when the G20 gathers in the USA, probably at Mar-a-Lago or in his new East Wing ballroom. And the same elite that gathered at Africa's first G20 Summit will bow down and worship him in the USA. Because performative politics keeps you alive and in your job. Politics is no longer about risking your own life and livelihood to improve the lives of others. It's about staying as close to the elite and their power for as long as you can. 

Our politicians consume elitist engagements like drug addicts. They know it does nothing to change anything, but it's a good enough fix till the next event. Until South Africans become angry enough at their government's performative global activism, they will continue to celebrate World Cups, G20S, and the Olympics without realising that their politicians are the only beneficiaries of these events.

They are slaves to this elitist type of politics, while their people have no water, live in fear, and their children continue to die like flies. If South Africa can shine for the world, why is it failing its own people?

*Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting.