Speaking to Channel Africa’s Sithakazelo Dlamini on the sidelines of the gathering, renowened Ugandan aeronautical engineer congratulated SA’s President Cyril Ramaphosa for soldiering on to bring the global superpowers together, despite the public condemnation by United States President, Donald Trump. Without mentioning Trump by name, Byanyima expressed sadness upon hearing the negative comments about SA.

“I heard in the media, one leader of a very powerful country saying that SA should not be in the G20, SA should not be hosting the G20 (summit). It felt like a knife going through my heart, as an Africa. That 20 of the biggest economies should sit and that Africa should be excluded. That’s our one country on this continent that’s a member of the G20,” she said.

In the build-up to the summit, Byanyima and American Public Policy Analyst, Professor Joseph Stiglitz presented Ramaphosa with the G20 Inequality Committee Report on global inequalities. The report highlighted the state of wealth and income inequality, their impacts on growth, poverty, and multilateralism. It also presented a range of effective solutions for leaders to employ in efforts to address the challenge. Byanyima says the report was one part of the historic milestone presented by Africa’s first ever G20 Leaders’ Summit.

” Coming here and observing how the G20 has been hosted, I am highly impressed and I am a proud African because the agenda of African issues has been placed right there for world leaders to address, including the lack of equitable access to finance, inequality, that is rigged in the international rules and the continent’s debt and the climate crisis, which is hitting Africa the hardest,” she said.

–ChannelAfrica–