On September 25, 2026, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, delivered a significant address to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. Speaking on Heritage Day, Lamola used the platform to present a charge sheet against the current international order, advocating for substantial changes to address inequality and insecurity. He emphasized that the promise of multilateralism is diminished when it fails to address these pressing issues. Lamola's speech was not merely a diplomatic courtesy but a list of grievances, each accompanied by a demand for action.
Lamola began by asserting Africa's resource sovereignty, particularly concerning critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, manganese, and platinum-group metals. These resources are crucial for the global energy transition and the development of artificial intelligence. He argued that Africa must have a say in the rules governing the development and deployment of these resources and the AI systems built on them. The message was directed at major powers like Washington and Beijing, emphasizing that extraction without beneficiation is not partnership but a continuation of historical exploitation. Lamola insisted that Africa must benefit from its resources and be positioned to profit from what is built with them.
The South African minister then turned to longstanding grievances against Western economic coercion. He renewed the call for the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe, arguing that these sanctions have led to economic paralysis rather than reform. Additionally, Lamola demanded an end to the decades-old US blockade of Cuba and the removal of Havana from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism, which he described as unfounded. He framed these issues as examples of economic power being used to force states off their chosen development paths, damaging not just the targeted countries but also third countries.
On conflict, Lamola was unequivocal. He identified Sudan as hosting the world's worst humanitarian crisis, alongside the war in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, and Ukraine. This was a rare instance of an African government explicitly linking a continental war to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the same UN address. Lamola also addressed the situation in Palestine, describing Israel's conduct as amounting to genocide and calling for decisive international action to end the impunity. He reaffirmed South Africa's commitment to a two-state solution and extended solidarity to Western Sahara's right to self-determination. He also highlighted attacks on humanitarian workers as a symptom of eroding respect for international law.
Behind the immediate crises, Lamola presented a structural argument that South Africa has been building since assuming the G20 presidency in 2025. He highlighted that a small elite controls global wealth, while most states are locked into debt payments that crowd out development spending. Citing figures, Lamola noted that the wealthiest tenth of the world controls roughly three-quarters of global wealth, while the poorest half holds a sliver. African governments now spend on debt servicing roughly what would close the continent's entire infrastructure financing gap. Alongside Brazil, Norway, and Spain, South Africa is pushing for an International Panel on Inequality and a "Borrowers' Club" to counterbalance creditor power.
A significant aspect of Lamola's address was the call for permanent African representation on the UN Security Council, as outlined in the Ezulwini Consensus. He noted that Africa accounts for more than a quarter of UN member states and nearly a fifth of the world's population, yet seven in ten Security Council resolutions over the past decade have concerned African conflicts decided without a permanent African voice in the room. With the continent projected to hold one in four of the world's young people by 2030, Lamola argued that the arithmetic of global governance no longer matches the arithmetic of the world it claims to represent.
Finally, Lamola used the platform to remind the Assembly of South Africa's unique moral standing as the only state to have voluntarily dismantled a nuclear weapons programme. He warned that global military spending now dwarfs the cost of meeting UN development goals, calling the resulting arms race as dangerous as it is divisive. Domestically, he pointed to South Africa's post-2024 government of national unity as proof that democracies can self-correct. Lamola closed by invoking Nelson Mandela's first address to the same Assembly in 1994, emphasizing that the world looks to the United Nations to bring peace, life, and a life worth living.
Key points
- South Africa's International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola called for a new world order that prioritizes Africa's development and challenges the existing global power structure.
- Lamola demanded the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe and an end to the US blockade of Cuba.
- He also called for permanent African representation on the UN Security Council, citing the continent's significant population and contribution to global affairs.
