On day one of the historic G20 Leaders’ Summit, Cyril Ramaphosa turned the cameras - and the tables - securing adoption at the start and seizing the narrative. It was a cunning masterstroke, writes Muhammad Hussain.
The adoption of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration as the first agenda point of the summit in Johannesburg was a masterstroke move – one that no one saw coming.
Usually, the declaration is adopted at the end of a G20 summit, but President Cyril Ramaphosa took a sho’ left, and left his detractors, the media and even his ministers, scrambling.
“Out of Africa, there is always something new,” Ramaphosa said, quoting a Roman writer before asking the G20 members present to adopt the declaration as the first order of business.
It was adopted unanimously (though Argentina opposed it during the open session, something they did last year in Brazil too).
This was Ramaphosa hitting back, affirming he has a spine, and posturing for the world to see.
Strategic prowess
Ramaphosa ran his mouth a little after his opening public statements. Without barely a pause, he went straight to the agenda for the day.
“There has been overwhelming consensus and agreement that one of the tasks we should undertake right at the beginning is to execute the task that we have come here for,” he said.
Behind him, his International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Ronald Lamola, and Sherpa Zane Dangor’s ties began to move vigorously.
They had just realised that the live feed was still being beamed to the world, and Ramaphosa was already into the closed-session section of his script.
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“Which is by overwhelming consensus to adopt our declaration,” Ramaphosa continued.
“With that, we would like to therefore …”, a dramatic whisper by Lamola into the ears of his principal, and Ramaphosa smiled. “I’m told that the cameras are still on. They should be off. I don’t know why that is,” Ramaphosa told his guests, the world leaders of some the largest economies representing billions of people.
Ramaphosa should have paused, and allowed for the cameras to be turned off. But he didn’t.
He again continued without pause, with the aura of a man that has a point to prove.
He revealed that each sector was able to reach agreement, and consensus had emerged.
“Do I have your support that we should go ahead …,” Ramaphosa asked, before the sound was eventually cut.
By then it was too late and the point was made: the chair had set the tone and seized the moment.
Ramaphosa had cemented his tactical prowess.
Machiavelli comes to Joburg
“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few know what you are.”
In his seminal work, The Prince, political strategist and philosopher, Niccolò Machiavelli, described how politics is judged by appearances.
Most people see what a leader does in public, because timing and theatre matters.
Make no mistake, Ramaphosa knew what he was doing. He rarely goes off script. So much so that he would utter the jokes scripted for him, even if they were bad. And, as an experienced and seasoned politician, Ramaphosa knows how to take advantage of a moment.
He made sure that this first part of the closed G20 session was visible to the world.
Why would he do that?
It is not new to adopt the leaders’ declaration on day one, as he alluded too with his Roman example – India had done it in 2023.
But, unlike this summit, every member of the G20 was represented in New Delhi. There were signals before that summit started that the consensus would be reached.
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Preceding this Johannesburg summit, the US had declared war on South Africa’s G20 presidency, rejecting it out-of-hand, and then preceded to boycott it.
The news ahead of Africa’s first G20 summit was all about what declaration would be adopted – would it be the weakened chair’s statement, or a reimagining of what consensus means.
Ramaphosa chose the bold strategic approach – go for the jugular, flip the script, and make sure that this summit made a splash.
Cunning in the agenda switch, boldness in pressing ahead, even when warned the cameras were still on.
With the media scrambling to find out what had happened, his aides scurrying to cut the feed, and the US still jostling to be invited to the party, Ramaphosa’s Machiavellian move made sure the world saw who was driving this historic summit.
He does run the risk of the declaration being questioned as a watered-down approach tailor-made for early adoption. Or the risk that some of those 19 leaders present may back out of the collective language he used in the aftermath.
Whether this summit-crafted masterstroke worked, well, that’s why there’s day two.
- Muhammad Hussain is an in-depth writer at News24.
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