South Africa pulled off a G20 diplomatic feat. Will it serve development?

Opening the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg last Saturday morning, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa offered the customary opening banalities of welcome required by diplomatic protocol, but then suddenly launched into the substance.

The meeting was supposed to have gone into closed session, but someone had failed to flip the switch. A whisper of warning in his ear did not deter Ramaphosa, who dramatically announced that a declaration had been agreed by full consensus of all 18 countries present.

Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa’s urbane spokesperson, assured me that it was a genuine mistake — but with a twinkle in the eye. At a stroke, the wily Ramaphosa had changed the rules of the G20 game, which by convention require that decisions are made by full consensus. U.S. President Donald Trump had not only announced that he would boycott the Group of 20 major economies, even though the U.S. will take over its presidency next year, but also that he objected to any attempt to secure a full declaration.