Budget Speech 2024

Madam Speaker, this year our country hosts the annual meetings of the New Development Bank, which will happen for the second time since formation of the BRICS bloc.

In 2025, South Africa takes on the presidency of the G20, following that of Brazil and India before that.

South Africa's G20 presidency is an opportunity for us to advance the most pressing economic, developmental, and financial issues that face poor and developing countries. As President Ramaphosa rightly stated in his State of the Nation Address, our goal is to "place Africa's development at the top of the agenda when we host the G20 in 2025".

We are working on the necessary allocations and identification of funds to make sure the various events are a success. As we have shown recently, South Africa remains an important regional and international leader.

Through participation and advocacy on platforms such as the G20, we can push for the substantive reform of multilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank, so that developing countries can participate more equally in the decision-making processes and global governance.

Moral courage and know-how are not in short supply in our country. We should harness these gifts, not only to better ourselves and our economy, but for the benefit of the entire continent.