More than 3,500 police officers have been deployed in South Africa in preparation for protests during this weekend’s G20 summit.
Published November 20, 2025
South Africa’s police and military forces staged a show of force with a parade of officers on helicopters and motorcycles ahead of expected demonstrations around the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Johannesburg this weekend.
Wednesday’s military flexibility measures came as authorities beefed up security by adding 3,500 police officers and keeping troops on standby under the National Joint Operations and Intelligence System. The National Joint Operations and Intelligence System is a unified command that coordinates the nation’s police, military, and intelligence agencies in preparation for high-profile events.
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Deputy National Police Commissioner Lt. Gen. Thebelo Moshikiri told reporters on Tuesday that authorities expected protests in Johannesburg and other big cities in South Africa.
“We are going to allow the exercise of that right (to protest),” she said. “However, within the proper limits of appropriate directives and laws.”
South African police said they had designated a specific area near the summit venue, an exhibition center adjacent to the country’s largest soccer stadium, where demonstrators could gather.
The two-day summit opens on Saturday and is expected to include leaders and top diplomats from more than 40 countries, as well as world organizations such as the United Nations. However, the US is boycotting it.
Demonstrations are expected by anti-capitalists, climate change activists, women’s rights campaigners and anti-immigration groups, some of whom are raising issues of poverty and inequality in South Africa itself.
The union representing members of South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority has already caused controversy by installing billboards around Johannesburg that read: “Welcome to the most racially restrictive country in the world.”
One of the boards was removed by city authorities, and the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity threatened legal action.
These signs refer to South Africa’s affirmative action law, which promotes opportunities for black people, and are part of the diplomatic influence between South Africa and the United States.
US President Donald Trump will not attend the G20 summit, boycotting widely rejected claims that South Africa’s black-led government pursues racist, anti-white policies and violently persecutes the Afrikaner minority.
The US government’s boycott threatens to derail Africa’s first G20 summit, although President Trump’s claims have been widely rejected as baseless.
South Africa on Wednesday rejected a US request not to issue a leaders’ declaration after this weekend’s G20 summit, claiming it had lost the right to speak after the US boycotted the meeting.
Government officials confirmed reports that the U.S. embassy sent a diplomatic note over the weekend reiterating that Washington would not participate in the summit.
“For wealthy people”
The Women for Change advocacy group is calling for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, the eve of the summit. They are protesting the extremely high rates of violence against women and femicide in South Africa and calling on women to boycott their day’s work.
“The G20 cannot talk about growth and progress until South Africa stops burying a woman every two and a half hours,” Women for Change said.
Anti-immigrant groups in South Africa will stage protests against unemployment and poverty in the country, where the country’s 31% unemployment rate is among the highest in the world, its leader said.
A coalition of groups protesting climate change and wealth inequality has organized an alternative summit in another part of Johannesburg starting Thursday, saying the G20 gathering is “for the rich.”
