Women20 SA "Women in solidarity"
CAPE TOWN - Programme around South Africa's G20 presidency continue at breakneck speed, ahead of November's summit.
The second and final day of the Women20 South Africa meeting starts with a plenary session that is led by Irene Natividad from the US.
The theme is Women in Solidarity, 2025 marks a decade of W20, which has been providing an opportunity for Africa to influence the G20's gender discussions.
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And certainly it has opened the door for more engagements between our respective trade teams.' He said that Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau had presented a trade proposal to his counterpart, the US trade representative, and Tau was 'awaiting a detailed response to that package proposal. 'And meetings are planned for later on in the month where there will be more formal and substantive engagement on what I will call the new trade relationship framework with the US.' The discussions would include the issue of trade tariffs, said Magwenya, referring to the 31% 'reciprocal' import tariffs that Trump had slapped on SA, before suspending them for 90 days on 9 April. The trade talks also offered 'an excellent opportunity to expand the basket of tradable goods between ourselves and the United States', said Magwenya. He said Ramaphosa had stated before meeting Trump that he would like to see South Africa continue to participate in the Agoa preferential trade scheme with the US. However, whether or not that happened, Ramaphosa and his administration 'are optimistic that in the end we will have what will be a mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States'. He suggested the new relationship would be 'better for our economy as well as for the US economy'. Magwenya said the narrative that there is a 'so-called persecution of people of a particular race in South Africa … is dying a very slow natural death … because it cannot be substantiated'. Scornful Asked to confirm that a second flight of Afrikaner 'refugees' had left for the US last week, Magweyna said the government was aware of the flight and that fewer people were on it than were on the first flight. He said Pretoria was 'a bit scornful of that programme, because it's not part of any reality'. He said the programme should be called 'a recruitment of people of a particular race, with certain skills', and should not be 'disguised as other things, because there is no South African citizen that is a refugee'. On other international issues, Magwenya said that on 30 June Ramaphosa would attend the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain. The conference would discuss issues such as how to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals and reform the international financial architecture. Magwenya said South Africa would convene a side event at the conference on how to achieve debt sustainability in developing economies. Because he would be attending this conference, Ramaphosa would be unable to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia, he said. DM
