President Cyril Ramaphosa has highlighted Africa’s rise, calling for fairer development and trade. He made the call at the ongoing 80th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“We must act decisively to silence all the guns everywhere to realize the goals of sustainable development and global peace, and I do believe that this is an objective that is possible to reach,” said Mr Ramaphosa.

He pointed out that South Africa’s presidency of the G20 marks the first time that the forum will convene a summit on the African continent, “the cradle of humanity”.

According to him, the summit focused on disaster resilience, debt sustainability for low-income countries, energy-transition financing, and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Africa is a continent “irreversibly on the rise”, he declared. Yet, many of the Sustainable Development Goals remain elusive due to a lack of financial resources; many developing countries spend more on debt servicing than on health or education.

Emphasising that trade is one of the most important instruments for mobilising domestic resources for development, he pointed out that it is now being used as a weapon against several countries.

On that, he underscored that the economic embargo against Cuba must be lifted, “and we want it lifted sooner rather than later”.

Pointing out that the UN’s relevance is being wilfully undermined by a growing reliance on unilateral military action, citing the situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and elsewhere.

He. However, stressed that Member States have a responsibility to ensure and protect Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

“There is a growing consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” he said.

He added that South Africa is calling on the International Court of Justice to rule that genocide is indeed being committed in the Strip, “and that it must stop”.

“We must reaffirm that freedom is indivisible, and that the denial of the rights of one person diminishes the freedom of all of us,” Mr Ramaphosa stated.

(NAN)