By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Inside

South Africa is gearing up for the G20 summit which will take place in November this year as this will be a crucial time for South Africa to appeal to global leaders in achieving sustainable growth mandates. As South Africa continues their preparations for the global summit, the themes that will be focused on are “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” which places emphasis on building partnerships across all sectors of society. These themes are emphasized in order to realise the transformative process of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

KwaZulu-Natal is set to host a “G20 Provincial Indaba” which will take place next week Tuesday on 10 June 2025. This gathering is one of the many G20 programmes which are hosted at provincial level as stakeholders, experts and senior government officials intend to gather as part of the Provincial Education Indaba which will be under the theme of exploring current opportunities in order to deliver Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for areas which lack fundamental resources. Normally G20 meetings or gatherings are exclusive to members and invited countries, however President Cyril Ramaphosa moved to have these gatherings together with the help of Departments of Basic Education and Higher education will have the G20 be open to the public and have the people become more involved in South Africa’s G20 Presidency. How the government plans to achieve this will be by hosting several provincial Indabas which will aim to bolster South Africa’s input when it comes to the big leaders meeting at the end of the year.

An “Indaba”, which originates from the Zulu word meaning “Matters”, is a meeting or a gathering in South Africa which is used to discuss high level matters. This indaba will be open to various sector stakeholders, as well as government officials, community leaders, educators to deliberate on the three educational priorities which include: Quality Foundational Learning, Mutual Recognition of Qualifications and Education Professional Development. Bringing G20 discussions to the provincial level is crucial to leveraging international insights to enhance South Africa’s education system. This will hope to foster global competitiveness of South African students and having South Africa’s educational standards to meet International standards so that there is evidence of a healthy educational future for South Africa, and will also solve local problems with Global solutions. Improving the educational quality in each province will improve the country’s economy in the long run by molding a future skilled workforce to take the country forward in the new generation.

By getting the people involved with G20 discussions this will also help South Africa’s G20 presidency in addressing certain issues that are critical to the people of South Africa and there is no better way of knowing what’s best for the people if they do not have a voice. These provincial Indabas will aim to bridge this gap.