Joburg needs to ‘get its act together’ for the G20 summit

Cape Town’s tourism industry is booming, and it doesn’t need the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in 2025 as much as Johannesburg does.

That’s the view of Marcel von Aulock, the group CEO of Southern Sun – South Africa’s biggest hotel owner and operator.

He was commenting on the national government’s decision to host the big event in Sandton this time next year.

Speaking during the group’s half-year results presentation to analysts last Thursday, he said the G20 event will be a huge positive for SA on the scale of a “mini-World Cup” in terms of international exposure and media coverage.

“I am glad it’s going to be hosted in Joburg. Cape Town doesn’t need it. “It doesn’t need conferencing and tourism business during this time of year, because it’s booming,” Von Aulock said.

“Cape Town is already very busy on the conferencing and leisure tourism front during this time of year, and hosting the G20 in the Mother City would have actually displaced a lot of its normal business.”

Von Aulock’s comments will be cold comfort for Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Western Cape officials who were pushing for the city to host the mega event.

Durban was also in the running, but government opted for SA’s financial hub in the precinct around the Sandton Convention Centre.

Last month, when Joburg was announced as the official host city of the summit, Hill-Lewis wrote on X that Cape Town was “naturally disappointed not to be hosting” the event.

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Cleaning up Joburg for the G20

Meanwhile, the Southern Sun boss also had “spicy” things to say about Joburg getting ready for the big event.

“Joburg needs to get cleaned up and get its act together ahead of the event,” said Von Aulock.

“We can use this event to drive positive change. It goes beyond Sandton; we need to clean up the city. We saw some of this during Joburg’s hosting of the Brics summit last year,” he said.

“Joburg hosting the G20 summit next year should force a lot of maintenance and investment to get the city cleaned up.” This year’s G20 leaders’ summit ended in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last Tuesday.

It was attended by 19-member countries, plus the African Union and the European Union. President Cyril Ramaphosa attended the summit and was also handed the hosting rights for next year’s event.

South Africa officially takes over the presidency of the G20 from next month.

While outgoing US President Joe Biden attended the latest G20 summit in Brazil, it is unclear whether incoming president Donald Trump will attend next year’s summit in South Africa.

However, Ramaphosa said last week that he had already sent invites to Trump and other G20 leaders to attend.

Also, after South Africa, the US will be the next host of the G2o summit in 2026.

According to Von Aulock, while the main event will be in Sandton next year, there will be dozens of run-up and other supporting events across the country, representing an overall boom for the local tourism and hospitality industry.

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