Trevor Manuel to chair G20 panel on African debt distress

Daily Maverick has been told that SA's former finance minister Trevor Manuel will chair a Group of 20 (G20) panel on Africa's deepening debt crisis.

The debt panel is one of the top lines to come out of the first G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Africa, which wrapped up in Johannesburg on February 21.

Closing the G20 meeting, Sherpa Zane Dangor said President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had met several times, and were part of several peace initiatives. He confirmed that a state visit was on the agenda. He added that South Africa's long-held view is that Russia should be part of any multilateral peace initiative for Ukraine. Highly placed Ukrainian sources in South Africa said the visit will likely occur in the second quarter of 2025. Zelensky posted on X on February 21 that he had held a conversation with Ramaphosa, who had invited him to SA. (Read more from News24 here.)

Asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin could attend the G20 November heads of state meeting in South Africa, Dangor also said an arrest warrant would have to be executed as South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute (governing membership of the International Criminal Court - the ICC). This means he is unlikely to attend as the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him for war crimes related to the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children in 2023.

At a time of widening geopolitical tension, it was inevitable that the fissures would be imported into the Johannesburg meeting. The future of Ukraine was on the table at the meeting when Reuters reported that UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said, after hearing Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's speech, that Russia had no appetite for peace.

Chinese media reports said its delegation had objected to discussions about the Ukrainian war crowding out other issues on the agenda.

In the meeting's final summary, the parties called for an end to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were detrimental to development, and the G20 meeting called for just and inclusive peace in each country. Both Ukraine and Palestine are being left out of peace processes involving them. The US and Russia are in talks about an end to the war with Ukraine, while the US and Israel are plotting a future for Gaza without Palestinians at the table.

The Manuel panel will consider what can be done about African debt in general and developing market debt in particular. Climate finance, finance for climate disasters, and the reform of the UN Security Council and international financial institutions emerged as key negotiating points ahead of the big November meeting.

Many developing countries are suffering under a heavy debt burden and a number of African countries are on the verge of going into debt distress, the meeting heard.

South Africa and Africa's first G20 meeting was well attended, with 16 ministers, four deputy ministers and the US charge of affairs attending.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said: "The USA has not boycotted the meeting, but they delegated somebody at a particular level to attend. Ms Dana Brown participated on behalf of the USA. The G20 has a troika [a governing council of officials] with ourselves as the current chair. The USA participated in the troika and participated throughout [the meeting] and left when other delegates left. They are full G20 members even if [they are] critical to SA. They were here and they were fully here." DM