Address by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development of the Republic of South Africa Mmamoloko Kubayi on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa to the G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit, 1 October 2025, Arabella Hotel, Kleinmond, Cape Town
Programme Director,
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Ronald Lamola,
Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Thoko Didiza,
Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane,
Speakers of the various Parliaments of the G20 countries,
Parliamentarians,
Representatives of the United Nations,
Representatives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to South Africa.
This Summit is a call to action for the parliaments of the G20 to work together to advance the principles of solidarity, equality and sustainability.
The P20 is a unique platform for strengthening global collaboration. It is an opportunity for the parliaments of the G20 countries to exchange ideas, to network, and to contribute substantively to resolving the most pressing issues of our time.
We meet at a time when our world is beset by problems on a number of fronts.
These problems include conflicts and war, climate change, digital disruption, geopolitical instability, pandemics and other global health crises.
These crises intersect and though they may vary with respect to intensity and lived experience, they affect us all.
As the institutional anchor of democracy, parliaments play a number of mutually reinforcing roles.
The first is representation. Parliaments are the voices of the people and as such aspire to reflect the diversity of their respective societies.
The data of the Inter-Parliamentary Union indicates notable progress worldwide with respect to the representation of young people, women, persons with disabilities and minorities.
Secondly, parliaments are tasked with creating the enabling legal frameworks for the progressive realisation of equality and for passing laws that align with the international commitments of their respective countries.
These commitments include the domestication of international treaties, incorporating human rights standards and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Thirdly, parliaments hold governments accountable to their domestic and international commitments. They ensure that the necessary budgets are allocated to reflect these commitments.
Beyond being chambers of debate, beyond advancing rights and overseeing executive power, parliaments are the crucial bridge between citizen and state.
They are the place where the destinies of nations are charted.
Human dignity is at the centre of our aspirations as governments, as parliaments and as societies.
The Brasilia Joint Statement on Parliaments for a Just World and a Sustainable Planet set a high standard.
It declared a commitment by the G20 Parliamentary Speakers to deepen solidarity and parliamentary diplomacy to deliver people-centered solutions.
This was reinforces by the endorsement of the Charter of Alagoas from the first P20 Meeting of Women Parliamentarians, which committed the signatories to a concrete programme of gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting in the work of their respective parliaments.
We are greatly encouraged by the equally high level of ambition articulated at the second P20 Meeting of Women Parliamentarians that concluded yesterday.
We are particularly encouraged that the issue of women’s representation in the global climate response was a major issue of discussion.
It is clear that we need to pursue sustainable development in our respective countries first and foremost. We need to improve representation and inclusive participation in that development.
For many, global solidarity is far removed from their everyday realities of access to employment, health care, education and to a decent quality of life.
We are contending with rising inequalities between and within societies, and between the Global North and Global South.
In many parts of the world, rising populism, xenophobia and extreme forms of nationalism threaten to undermine solidarity.
It is therefore incumbent upon us as parliaments to bring our institutions closer to the people, to restore the bonds of trust and to make all citizens part of the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
I am pleased that the G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit has broadening citizen participation as a standing item as we seek out new, innovative ways to achieve this.
This Summit is a valuable forum for the exchange of best practice between the different G20 parliaments around how we can consolidate faith in democracy and adapt to contemporary realities.
Fifteen years since the first informal consultations began that led to the first G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit, this mechanism endures as a platform for bringing a parliamentary dimension to global governance.
For the international commitments of the G20 to be effectively translated into national realities, and for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to have practical meaning, implementation must be felt on the ground.
As the bridge between citizen and state, the challenge for parliaments the world over is to translate hope into purpose and promise into action.
I look forward to our engagement today, and look even further forward to a bold, forward-looking declaration from this year’s Summit.
One that is matched by tangible steps that will be taken by all the parliaments represented here today to give practical meaning to solidarity, equality and sustainability.
I thank you.
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