By: Bright Ntuli
President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s G20 Presidency will use the group’s Expert Panel on Global Inequality report to guide discussions at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg later this month.
He was speaking after receiving the report of the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, the first of its kind in the forum, chaired by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.
The report examines the drivers of inequality and provides practical steps to reduce the wealth gap.
Ramaphosa told the media that “inequality is a betrayal of people’s dignity, an impediment to inclusive growth and a threat to democracy itself.”
He emphasised that the report “lays out prudent and pragmatic steps we can take to reduce it” and described addressing inequality as “our inescapable generational challenge”.
The report contains stark findings and demonstrates that between 2000 and 2024, the world’s top 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, while the bottom 50% gained just 1%.
The committee also noted that 83% of countries, accounting for about 90% of the global population, now meet the World Bank’s definition of “high inequality”. Such societies are seven times more likely to experience democratic decline.
Stiglitz warned, “The world understands that we have a climate emergency. It is time we recognise that we face an inequality emergency too. Inequality is not the laws of nature but the laws of man.”
The report, which Ramaphosa says will serve as a blueprint for greater equality, aligns with South Africa’s G20 Presidency theme of “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability”.
As part of this effort, the Presidency aims to place inequality, both within and between countries, firmly on the G20 agenda. It also seeks to push for coordinated global policy responses such as reforming international tax and trade rules, reducing corporate concentration, and investing more in public services.
