Busa's Mxolisi Mgojo urges SA to grab B20 opportunities with both hands

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) president Mxolisi Mgojo has urged South African businesses and the government to make the best of the G20 events the country will be hosting, especially the business arm of the event, Business 20 (B20).

He was speaking to delegates at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Thursday.

His remarks come as US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold HIV/Aids relief funding to South Africa over claims that land was being confiscated.

Mgojo will chair the B20 meeting alongside Standard Bank chair Nonkululeko Nyembezi.

“This B20 is going to the US next year. But we are already hearing statements from some government officials saying that they are not even going to attend some of the G20 engagements which are taking place in the next month or so,” Mgojo said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio posted on social media networking site X that he would not be attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg this year, alluding to the claims Trump made as the reason. South Africa took on the G20 presidency from Brazil last year and will pass the baton to the US at the end of this year.

Mgojo urged South Africa’s government and business leaders not to be distracted, as the event was a golden opportunity for them to shape trade policy across various countries.

“All these issues about sustainability, inclusivity, equitability, equitable progress have now been put into disarray. It’s not about that for some nations. And therefore this is going to be a big challenge for us as the B20, given the fact that we’ve got all big G20 representative countries involved in this policy formation.”

He said B20 was particularly vital as it was the body of global business leaders coming together to shape policies that are going to be engaged on by G20 leaders.

“The B20 serves as the official platform for the global business community to shape policy recommendations for G20 governments to enable economic co-operation, growth and sustainable development.”

He said the gathering had the potential to unlock inclusive growth and economic participation, accelerate a just energy transition, drive enterprise development and invest in Africa's human capital.

“This is the first B20 and G20 presence hosted by an African nation. Very important [and] a significant opportunity to foster that co-ordination, alignment across the continent on priorities that talk to the acceleration of our growth story from one of potential to material progress.”

He urged business leaders in South Africa and the continent to use the opportunity to refine their focus and sharpen their strategies for growth and development for the next decade.

Earlier on Thursday, minister of international relations and co-operation Ronald Lamola said in a statement that he had noted the tweet by Rubio.

“We are a sovereign and democratic country committed to human dignity, equality and rights, championing nonracialism and nonsexism while placing our constitution and the rule of law at the forefront,” he said.

Lamola said there was no arbitrary dispossession of land, including private property, and that the expropriation act passed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January was similar to the eminent domain laws.

The head of multi-asset and fixed income at Schroders Australia, Sebastian Mullins, said Trump’s America First agenda was expected to boost US growth, likely at the expense of other economies.

“US GDP came in at 2.3% for the fourth quarter of 2024, which was below expectations, but mainly due to distortions from industrial action, such as the strike at Boeing. The positive news beneath the surface was extremely strong consumer spending, which came in at 4.2%, the highest since early 2023 and off the back of three consecutive quarters of above 3% growth,” he said.

He said for the full year 2024, US GDP came in at a solid 2.8%. He forecast that US growth would continue at 2.5% in 2025 and 2.7% in 2026, as Trump’s pro-growth policies have more of an impact in his second year.

Meanwhile, Business Day reported on Thursday that South Africa has set itself an ambitious growth target in its medium-term development plan, which targets GDP growth levels ranging from 2% to 5.4%.

Business Times