Programme Director, Mr Eric LeCompte,
His Eminence, Cardinal Silvano Tomasi,
His Eminence, Cardinal Peter Turkson,
Fellow Panellists from Caritas International,

Good afternoon from South Africa.

It is a very special honour for me to address you at this Press Conference, which is to launch campaigns on debt relief in 160 countries as part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee 2025, or Holy Year.

My address today is in the context of South Africa’s Presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), a responsibility we hold from 1 December 2024 until 30 November 2025.

We are fully aware that this Presidency carries tremendous responsibility, given that the decisions taken by the G20 directly impact the lives of all members of the global community, notably the most vulnerable and needy.

The 2024 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Multidimensional Poverty Index reveals that approximately 1.1 billion of 6.3 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty, over half of them children. Common deprivations include a lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.

While our global system could address pressing development challenges, it instead excels at funding destruction and exploitative extraction. In a world where funding wars is prioritised over development and exploitation is chosen over solidarity, equality, and sustainability, the contrast is stark and disheartening.

The bleak and disheartening global situation suggest that the international community requires a profound paradigm shift. This shift can involve changing entrenched mindsets and proposing innovative, practical solutions.

Changing the mindset requires the community of nations to do justice to the notion of the international community by identifying with each other through solidarity, harmony, and mutual respect. This dictum, rooted in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, emphasises interconnectedness, shared humanity, and collective responsibility.

Central to the Ubuntu dictum is the common isiZulu phrase “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (I am because you are). This formulation prescribes that individuals in each society fully actualise as human beings when they realise and act in accordance with the realisation that their well-being depends on the existence and well-being of their fellow members. In this way, society becomes a nurturing entity, embracing each person and fostering their growth, as if the community breathes life into its members.

Nations states cannot truly prosper as isolated islands in an ocean of poverty. This is contrary to the spirit of Ubuntu and the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, which emphasise Leaving No One Behind?

As Jesus of Nazareth taught, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This timeless principle reminds us that what we wish for ourselves should be what we wish for others. Building on this, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, through his Categorical Imperative, emphasised our moral duty to regard human beings as having inherent value, never to be treated merely as a means to an end. These teachings together underscore the profound ethical responsibility we hold towards one another.

In this context, we have chosen to hold our G20 Presidency under the theme Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability. If we harness our collective humanity and embrace our interconnectedness, then we can confront the enormous challenges the world is facing. By uniting in solidarity, striving for equality, and committing to sustainability, we aim to build a better future for all. Therefore, our commitment to these principles will lead us to a better future.

South Africa will address these urgent challenges by building partnerships across all sectors of society, including with communities of faith. From these communities of faith, we seek moral direction and guidance in a world often lacking compassion and universal caring.

Under our Presidency, we have identified Inequality as the most significant threat to our collective future.This inequality is most prevalent in the Global South and is manifested through critical challenges such as a lack of predictable and sustainable financing, a dire shortage of capacity building for climate action, and crippling debt that forces many countries to abandon their developmental programs just to service exorbitant debts.

The situation is so severe that it feels as if entire nations are being suffocated under the weight of these overwhelming burdens.

We acknowledge and appreciate the work of the Catholic Church, under the leadership of His Holiness, Pope Francis, to urge the world to do more to free developing countries from the debt trap, which is causing untold “misery and despair” and depriving the citizens of these countries of their human dignity, stifling their ability to reach their full potential.

We welcome the launch of debt relief initiatives in 160 countries for Jubilee 2025, which will undoubtedly significantly help alleviate the economic and social distress in these countries.

I wish to take this opportunity to announce that under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, an ambitious Cost of Capital Commission will be established to investigate the issues that impair the ability of low- and middle-income countries to access sufficient, affordable, and predictable flows of capital to finance their environmentally responsible and socially inclusive development plans.

This Commission will deliver a comprehensive expert review on the issues impacting the cost of capital for developing economies, which could help address future debt sustainability issues and the related fiscal space challenges.

Tackling inequalities to enable developing countries to lift themselves out of the quicksand of debt also requires accelerating reform of the international financial architecture. As the saying goes, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” By strengthening the financial systems of developing nations, we strengthen the global economy.

South Africa is fully aligned with the Catholic Church’s call for a “new international financial architecture that is human-centred, bold, creative and based on the principles of equity, justice and solidarity,” delivered at COP29 in Baku in November 2024.

Indeed, as stated by His Holiness, ‘foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis”.

We will use our G20 presidency to contribute to reinvigorating and strengthening multilateralism and creating consensus around issues that affect our collective future. To effectively respond to global realities, multilateral mechanisms and institutions must be strengthened and reformatted.

Beyond our collective humanity, this is a simple matter of our shared responsibility.

We are inspired by the “Pilgrims of Hope” theme for the 2025 Jubilee.

We, too, believe that amid our many challenges, we must look to our future with hope and opportunity.

Indeed, we call on faith leaders from across the globe to continue to guide us with their wisdom, compassion, and deep spirituality to restore hope and trust to the most vulnerable.

We must not just reach out to each other in the name of our common humanity; we must also re-envision and re-imagine how we wish to secure the world that we want, leaving no country and no one behind.

I thank you.

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION

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