Johannesburg: The term “G20” was the most frequently used word in South Africa in 2025, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) said on Tuesday.
PanSALB – an organisation mandated to promote multilingualism, develop and preserve South Africa’s 12 official languages, and protect language rights – said it worked with a media research company to analyse frequency data and discovered that “G20” featured prominently in the “reputable print, broadcast and online media.”
The selection process involved shortlisting candidates based on authentic language usage. “G20” emerged as the most dominant keyword largely due to South Africa’s role as the G20 presidency in 2025 and its hosting of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The terms “Government of National Unity” and “Tariffs” ranked second and third, respectively, reflecting key political developments, international engagements and socioeconomic debates that shaped the country during the year, the agency added.
South Africa recently hosted the 20th Group of 20 (G20) Summit where world leaders reached a broad consensus on disaster resilience, debt sustainability, just energy transitions and critical minerals as they adopted the G20 South Africa Summit’s Leaders’ Declaration.
The announcement of the declaration’s adoption was made at the opening of the summit, the first ever held in Africa. The declaration warns that increasingly frequent and intense disasters and shocks are undermining development and overstretching response systems. Leaders said they “hinder progress towards sustainable development and strain both national capabilities and the international system’s ability to respond.”
They called for integrated, people-centered approaches and highlighted the need for “strengthened disaster resilience and response,” particularly for vulnerable small island developing states and least developed countries.
Energy access and transition also featured prominently. The declaration underscores stark inequalities, noting that “over 600 million Africans have no access to electricity.”
The leaders support efforts to triple global renewable capacity and double energy-efficiency improvements by 2030, and emphasized the urgency of mobilizing scaled-up investment and facilitating low-cost financing for developing countries in line with national circumstances. They also highlighted the importance of voluntary technology transfer “on mutually agreed terms.”
On critical minerals, the G20 endorsed a Critical Minerals Framework, describing it as a voluntary guide for “sustainable, transparent, stable and resilient critical minerals value chains that underpin industrialization and sustainable development.”
(IANS)
