Chairperson of the Civil 20 (C20) Thulani Tshefuta says from December 2024 to date, they have managed to register more than 1 900 organisations that participate in C20 structures and processes.
“These organisations are drawn from South Africa, the African continent and the rest of the world,” Tshefuta said at a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday.
The briefing was held to update media on the state of readiness to deliver the C20 Policy Pack ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in November 2025.
The global C20 initiative serves as a vital platform for civil society engagement with the G20. Established in 2013, C20 advocates for the inclusion of diverse voices in shaping the decisions that affect communities worldwide.
C20 South Africa is led by a network of national apex organisations that represent a broad range of sectors and activism including youth, women, the disabled, civics, cooperatives, the informal sector, traditional leaders, faith-based organisations, coalitions and campaigns, social movements, NPO/NGO networks and Issue-based formations
Tshefuta said C20 South Africa convened a successful Mid-Term Policy Dialogue on 22 – 24 June 2025 in Sandton and was attended by more than 300 delegates in person, while an additional 1 800 delegates attended virtually in South Africa, Africa and other G20 countries.
“The outcomes of our deliberations and policy proposals were presented to the G20 Mid-Term Sherpa Meeting that was held on 25 – 27 June 2025 in Sun City,” Tshefuta said.
He explained that C20 member organisations are apex organisations, national organisations, medium sized organisations, grassroots and community-based formations.
“The substantive work of C20 is organised into six clusters and 14 working groups in line with government working groups.”
Tshefuta said the essence of the theme of the South African G20 Presidency -- Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability -- is about co-existence, collaborations and partnerships.
“You cannot be in solidarity with yourself. You cannot be equal to yourself. Measures of sustainability outlive oneself. This further suggests that as social partners, we can play different but complementary roles.
“The G20 Presidency of South Africa has committed to promote a people-centred, development-oriented G20 that fosters inclusive economic transformation rather than economic dominance by a few.”
Tshefuta said education and health are the two most important public services whose access to good quality services should never depend on social status, and level of income and affordability.
“The governments and the social partners must foster better strategic policy alignment between the macro-economic policies, employment and labour market policies, sectoral economic policies and skills development policies.”
Tshifuta further said economic policies must be inclusive and job-rich.
“Skills development policies must respond to the labour market demands. We recommend that the G20 Summit and outcome document must prioritise policies, programmes and budgets to promote massive Youth Employment.
“Developing economies must be given space for debt relief and cancellation in order to redirect debt service costs towards productive economic activities,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
