What an extraordinary contrast it must have been for President Jacob Zuma. From debating such critical topics as "white monopoly capital" on the fringes of Soweto at the ANC’s policy conference, he zipped over to Hamburg in Germany to join 19 other world leaders to discuss the grand issues of the globe. It must have been something of a relief. The undercurrent discussion at the Group of 20 (G-20) meeting was all about leadership — but not his leadership. The significance of this meeting was about US leadership during the presidency of Donald Trump, whose explicit policy is all about rejecting the notion of a global community that shares common interests of peace, prosperity and economic integration. Trump’s rejection of the idea of US leadership and his substitution of that for an adversarial approach based on "America First" formed the backdrop of the meeting. As irony would have it, the meeting was hosted by Germany, whose Chancellor Angela Merkel has come to represent everything ...

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