G20 | Oxfam highlighting call to tax super-rich

The article is a news report from the G20 summit in South Africa, hosted near Johannesburg, covering discussions on addressing global inequality and poverty under South Africa's presidency since December of the previous year. Reporter Gloria Sifu Musi reports from Sueta, highlighting proposals to tax super-rich individuals (billionaires) and multinational corporations to fund social and environmental initiatives, including responses to climate change impacts like destructive rains in South Africa. A key declaration on these issues was adopted despite opposition from the United States, marking a victory for multilateralism and the first G20 held in Africa. At an Oxfam-organized media event, policy advisor Isabel Frey expresses pride in South Africa's firm stance against bullying, strengthening the handover of G20 presidency to the US. Oxfam, which annually reports on inequality, supported South Africa's focus on equality as one of its three summit themes. They praise the establishment of the Stiglitz Committee of independent experts on global inequality, whose report—presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa in November—recommends an international panel on inequality, backed by leaders like Ramaphosa, Brazil's Lula, and Spain's Sanchez. Addressing criticisms that taxing the rich could stifle entrepreneurship and innovation, Frey argues that extreme inequality, not taxation, hinders competition through monopolies, and that revenues could fund essential services like education and healthcare, fostering a productive workforce. She emphasizes redistribution's role in economic growth: the combined wealth of G20 billionaires exceeded $2 trillion last year, enough to lift nearly 4 billion people out of poverty, stimulating demand, supply, jobs, and sustainable economic movement.