South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has termed as “regrettable” the statement by US President Donald Trump that South Africa would not be invited to participate in next year’s G20 summit in Florida.
In a social media post, Trump stated that South Africa had declined to hand over the G20 presidency to a representative from the US embassy at last week’s summit in Johannesburg.
As directed by me, South Africa will not receive an invitation to the 2026 G20 summit, set to be held in Miami, Florida, the following year.
Members of the G20, a group of the world’s largest economies, automatically qualify for attendance but can still face exclusion through visa regulations.
Vincent Magwenya, South Africa’s presidential spokesman, stated that at the highest level of political leadership, they should now accept that despite their endeavours, “there won’t be a reset of the relationship” between the two countries.
“If visas are rejected, we will have to move forward and consider alternatives outside of the G20 in the US,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
He stated that they were concentrating on collaborating with the other G20 members to sustain the progress of the issues discussed at the summit in Johannesburg.
The summit was boycotted by Trump due to a claim that has been widely discredited, which asserts South Africa’s white minority is the victim of large-scale killings and land seizures.
In a statement, Ramaphosa noted that the US had been expected to participate in the G20 meetings, however it chose not to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg by its own decision. He also observed that certain US businesses and civil society organisations were in attendance.
The official stated that as the US delegation was absent, the instruments of the G20 Presidency were formally transferred to a US Embassy representative at the headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
A low-key transfer seems to have exacerbated Trump’s anger, given his previous criticism of the South African government’s domestic and foreign policies.
He has previously stated that a white genocide was occurring in South Africa, and on Wednesday, he claimed the government was “killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be seized”.
The South African government has repeatedly dismissed such claims as thoroughly untrustworthy and unsupported by reliable evidence.
Ramaphosa stated it was unfortunate that despite attempts to re-establish relations with the US, Trump persisted in imposing retaliatory measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.
On Wednesday, in a Truth Social post, Trump stated that South Africa had shown the world they were not a country deserving of membership anywhere, and he announced an immediate halt to all payments and subsidies to them.
South African officials have requested solidarity and encouraged other G20 countries to protect the integrity of the meeting and the rights of all its member states.
The G20 summit, marking its inaugural appearance in Africa, concluded with a joint declaration pledging multilateral cooperation on climate change mitigation and economic inequality.
The declaration was adopted despite US objections, which have accused South Africa of weaponising its leadership of the group this year.
