Overview
- President Cyril Ramaphosa urged G20 leaders to significantly and urgently reduce inequality in a message ahead of the summit in Johannesburg.
- South Africa’s G20 Presidency elevated equality as a core pillar and commissioned an Extraordinary Committee chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, which has delivered its findings.
- The report identifies market concentration, monopolies and anticompetitive practices as major structural drivers of widening income and wealth gaps.
- Recommendations include creating a permanent International Panel on Inequality, advancing debt sustainability for developing economies, reforming multilateral development banks, and adopting national inequality reduction plans.
- Ramaphosa cited statistics showing the richest 10% earn more than half of global income and hold about 74% of wealth, and he pointed to South Africa’s policies—progressive taxation, a minimum wage, subsidised healthcare, zero-rated staples and social protection—as aligned examples.