Civil society launches ‘People’s Summit’ to counter Johannesburg G20

As Johannesburg hosts the G20 summit at Nasrec on 22-23 November — the first on African soil and featuring dignitaries from the world's wealthiest nations — civil society organisations demand that governments prioritise climate justice, debt reduction and taxing billionaires and dollar millionaires.

Ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit, civil society organisations have launched a counter-movement to demand wealth taxes, debt relief for low-income countries and climate justice. From Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on 13 November 2025, the civil society movement We the 99 announced the People’s Summit, which will run from 20-22 November. 

With Civil 20 (C20), these civil society efforts involve more than 100 local and international organisations, including trade unions, research institutes and non-profits focused on human rights, climate justice and economic justice. 

South Africa has used its G20 presidency to foreground issues that predominantly affect Global South countries, including sovereign debt burdens, the cost of capital and inequality. Efforts include the establishment of the Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality, chaired by Nobel Economics Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, to examine the impact of global inequality on growth, poverty and multilateralism. 

Read more: Ramaphosa’s G20 legacy could be a global push to tackle inequality and strengthen democracy

Globally, the wealth gap has grown. In early 2025, an Oxfam analysis found that the world’s wealthiest 1% had increased their wealth by $33.9-trillion since 2015.

Nearly half the world’s population – about 3.7 billion people – live in poverty while just 3,000 billionaires own 43% of global assets. A 69-page report published by the Inequality Commission on 4 November found that 83% of countries have high wealth inequality – measured by a Gini coefficient of 0.4 – and these countries account for 90% of the global population. 

Civil society organisations say that without the input of ordinary people, the Johannesburg G20 Summit risks prioritising the interests of elites and perpetuating the status quo.

They argue that the current economic system funnels wealth into the hands of the top 1% and steers the planet closer towards climate catastrophe. These inequalities are particularly stark in South Africa, which is ranked the most unequal country in the world.

Read more: Majority of SA’s US dollar millionaires back a 2% wealth tax, survey finds

“Johan Rupert, the Oppenheimer family, George Bezos, Patrice Motsepe and other rich people have so much money that they can afford private planes, private boats, many farms, many houses across the world. And yet we have people in Soweto, in rural areas who go to bed without food,” Mazibuko Jara, executive director of Zabalaza Pathways Institute and one of the convenors for the People’s Summit, told Daily Maverick.

“That tells us that the rich people do not pay a fair share of the tax. We need them to pay a fair share of the tax so that everyone can live well.”

Key demands: tax, debt and climate

In addition to taxing the rich, the People’s Summit is also targeting illicit financial flows and debt crises. A particular concern is international financial lending institutions to which low-income countries are heavily indebted.

According to data from ONE Data and Analysis, in 2023, African countries owed an estimated $685.5-billion to external countries, equivalent to nearly a quarter of their GDPs. This issue has already been flagged by former finance minister and current chair of the G20 Africa Expert Panel, Trevor Manuel, who has placed the continent’s debt crisis high on this year’s agenda. 

Sekoetlane Phamodi is the director of the New Economy Hub and an organiser for the People’s Summit. He told Daily Maverick that the issue was not debt itself, as debt could be a useful tool to enable countries to invest in infrastructure.

However, the decrease in sovereign lending and increase in private lenders has raised the pricing of debt, creating a debt system that is “rigged” against poor countries. 

“We find ourselves in this extraordinary position where countries in Africa are forced to spend more than on public education and public health combined in order to be able to service their debts, never mind paying them off,” Phamodi said.

Included in the demands are calls to tackle climate crises by guaranteeing food security and shifting energy systems away from fossil fuels. 

“The carbon-based energy system that we have is what is killing our planet and is causing even more of an economic, social and democratic crisis in our respective countries,” Phamodi said.

“So if we want to arrest that, we have to change the way in which our energy systems are powered. And that is really by investing in renewable energy technologies and actually cutting out carbon-based technologies for the sake of our economies, if not the sake of our planet.”

The People’s Summit will feature mobilisations at Constitution Hill and outside Nasrec, including a People’s Festival on Saturday, 21 November, which will include dialogues, live performances and art installations. DM