Download PDFThe city removes litter and pushes out vendors; government paints South Africa as a global leader. But behind the scenes, the same problems remain.
- They criminalise the poor informal traders, migrants, and street dwellers are swept aside. Their survival strategies are treated as inconveniences rather than symptoms of deeper injustice.
- They offer visibility without transformation both clean-ups and summits are spectacles. They create an image of action without addressing root causes.
- They exclude working-class voices community members are not consulted. They are not invited. They are not prioritised.
The people recognise this pattern and they mistrust it.
If the G20 refuses to confront inequality, if it continues to silence migrants, workers, and the unemployed, then its promises of a “better world” will remain empty.
Across South Africa, the working class is saying:
We do not need more summits.
We need justice.
We need dignity.
We need power in our own hands.
Meaningful change will not come from heads of state seated around a table in a secured conference centre. It will come from movements of the poor, from workers organising in their workplaces, from migrants defending their right to exist, from communities demanding access to services, from youth refusing to accept a life without prospects.
Because the truth is simple:
The people cannot eat summits. The people cannot live on speeches. And, the people will not stop demanding a world built for them, not for the elites.
This article is an opinion piece submitted on 01 December 2025. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Karibu! Online or Khanya College. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
