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24 November 2025 – The African Union (AU) was admitted as a permanent member of the G20 in 2023 (Masamba, 2024). South Africa’s presidency in 2025 is the first time an African country has taken on the mantle of agenda-setter of this multilateral forum. The country’s leadership is widely seen as an opportunity to give more prominence to African priorities such as climate change, debt relief, fair trade, and infrastructure investment (Time Africa, 2025).
Since 1994, when South Africa joined the AU, it has contributed significantly to continental affairs. It has championed economic integration through intra-African trade, sought to elevate Africa’s voice on the global stage, and promoted peace through conflict mediation and peacekeeping missions in conflict zones across Africa (History Rise, 2025). When South Africa chaired the AU at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it pushed for fairer development finance, access to vaccines and funding, and support for economic recovery in the Global South (African Union, 2021; Brand South Africa, 2025).
South Africa’s biggest bilateral trading partners are China, the United States, and Germany (Ishmael, 2023). In August of this year, South African exports to the United States were slapped with a 30% tariff, causing especially grievous harm to the country’s agricultural, manufacturing, and mining sectors (Tarrant, 2025). In response, the government is looking to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to facilitate greater economic integration and cooperation across the African continent (Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition, 2025). Meanwhile, trade within the BRICS group is growing; it represented 21% of the country’s total trade volume in 2024, led by China and India. And new markets such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates are also gaining momentum (BRICS Connect, 2025).
Ahead of the G20 summit in Johannesburg (22-23 November), this dispatch explores how South Africans view their economic and political relations with the rest of the world.
The most recent Afrobarometer survey reveals that citizens are supportive of international trade and political cooperation.
Two-thirds of South Africans see China’s economic and political influence on the country as positive – five times the share of negative assessments. Perceptions that China’s influence is substantial and positive recovered in 2025, having fallen between 2015 and 2022.
Citizens are also more positive than negative in their assessments of the influence of the AU, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the European Union (EU), the United States, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
About six in 10 express satisfaction with the way South Africa’s needs and interests are recognised in AU and SADC decision making. But fully three-quarters say African countries need a stronger voice on global platforms such as the United Nations.
Three-fifths of South Africans endorse open trade, but only about one in eight have heard of the AfCFTA.
Among the two-thirds of respondents who have heard of the Ukraine-Russia war, most want their country to remain neutral. Source: Afrobarometer.org