When South Africa assumed the G20 presidency, it stepped into a momentous role: the first African nation to lead the grouping of the world’s most powerful economies.
For a country often celebrated for its spirit of ubuntu and history of reconciliation, this was more than a diplomatic milestone. It was an opportunity to demonstrate how effective communication can transform convening power into lasting influence.
Communications as the Presidency’s backbone
From the outset, South Africa’s chosen theme, Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability, was a masterstroke of narrative framing. It rooted the presidency in South Africa’s historical DNA, presenting a values-led approach that resonated with many global constituencies. By actively engaging not only state actors but also 13 engagement groups including women (W20), youth (Y20), business (B20), and think tanks (T20), South Africa sought to democratise the G20 conversation.
This broad-based approach was not just symbolic. The Think20, anchored by South Africa’s leading institutions, delivered high-impact policy recommendations, while the creation of a Township20 (TS20) spotlighted grassroots economies, linking township voices to global conversations.
In many ways, South Africa reframed the G20 as a platform for inclusion, not only for the elite.
The communication wins
South Africa’s presidency demonstrated several strengths. Narrative discipline anchored in ubuntu ensured messaging alignment across engagements. Civil society, youth, women, and SMEs were given visible roles, strengthening legitimacy beyond government halls.
Platforms like the T20 produced tangible outputs, with policy recommendations feeding into Sherpa meetings and debates. These were important strides in shifting the G20’s perception from an exclusive club to an inclusive dialogue.
The missed opportunities
Yet, communications success cannot be measured by inclusion alone. While constituencies were engaged, several gaps emerged. For most South Africans, the presidency felt distant, and the impact of G20 outcomes on daily life remained abstract.
Diplomatically, geopolitical headwinds played out in public, with some countries dismissing South Africa’s agenda as overly focused on equity and climate. The lack of consensus at the Finance Ministers’ Meeting further diluted messaging impact.
Too often, communications focused on reporting events after they happened rather than shaping narratives ahead of time.
What needs to happen before the handover
With the presidency nearing its end, the communications focus must shift from reporting activity to cementing a legacy. The real measure of success will be whether South Africa can translate its inclusive approach into stories that live beyond the summit halls and resonate both at home and abroad.
Other G20 presidencies offer useful lessons here. India, for instance, in 2023 branded its presidency as a “People’s G20” through the Jan Bhagidari campaign, which rolled out more than a thousand events across all states.
By bringing policy conversations into schools, town halls, and local communities, India ensured that citizens could see themselves reflected in what is often a highly technical, elite process. Indonesia did something similar in 2022, tying its ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger’ slogan to everyday realities of families and small businesses emerging from the pandemic.
South Africa has a similar opportunity: to link discussions on AI governance, climate finance, and township economies to relatable South African stories that show how global cooperation has local impact.
On the global stage, communications must move from reactive event summaries to proactive agenda-setting. Italy, during its 2021 presidency, demonstrated the power of media diplomacy by placing op-eds in influential outlets like Financial Times and Politico Europe to frame its narrative on climate and digital taxation before summits began.
Japan, too, in 2019, positioned itself in international media as a “bridge-builder” presidency, shaping coverage of digital economy principles well in advance. South Africa should adopt this model, ensuring its ministers, sherpas and engagement group leaders are visible in global outlets like Bloomberg and Al Jazeera, while using African media to present South African leadership as a blueprint for inclusive governance.
At the engagement group level, legacy should be packaged more deliberately. Indonesia’s Youth20 and Women20 created digital campaigns that amplified their recommendations far beyond the conference rooms, while India ensured that engagement group communiqués were integrated into major side events that captured global media attention.
For South Africa, this could mean producing multimedia legacy kits so that groups like W20, Y20, B20, and the uniquely South African Township20 leave behind communications products that can continue to circulate after the presidency ends.
Critically, communications success must be defined with metrics that go beyond communiqués. India tracked domestic recognition of the G20 through citizen awareness surveys, while Italy conducted sentiment analysis to see whether it had shaped European and global narratives around its priorities.
South Africa should set similar benchmarks: the percentage of South Africans aware of the presidency, the tone of African and global media coverage and the extent to which engagement group initiatives continue after the handover.
Finally, the presidency should embrace technology as a communications enabler. India made effective use of advanced social listening tools to track conversations around ‘#G20India’ and to correct misinformation in real time.
South Africa has the chance to go further, deploying AI-powered monitoring to capture global sentiment, test the reach of its storytelling and pivot quickly when narratives veer off course.
If these steps are taken, South Africa can ensure its G20 presidency is remembered not only for its policy outcomes, but for how it redefined the role of communications in global governance – turning technical diplomacy into a story of participation, influence, and legacy.
Communications as a leadership legacy
South Africa’s G20 presidency was never going to be just about policy – it was about reputation, influence, and narrative. By embedding inclusivity into the G20 agenda, the country set a precedent for African leadership on the global stage.
Yet, as the handover approaches, the final test is whether communications can turn participation into perception, and perception into legacy.
Strategic communication is not a soft add-on to diplomacy, it is diplomacy. And as the G20 baton is passed, South Africa has the chance to show that storytelling, when done with clarity and courage, can be the most powerful form of leadership.
Mildred Thabane is a strategic communicator and reputation management specialist with deep expertise in PR, storytelling and stakeholder engagement. With a track record of shaping narratives across industries, she is passionate about demonstrating the power of communications in driving influence, trust and impact. Her current focus is on exploring how business storytelling and emerging technologies like AI can be leveraged to grow reputations and build meaningful connections across Africa and beyond.
