South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as regrettable the announcement by US President Donald Trump that South Africa would not be invited to take part in next year's G20 summit in Florida.
In a social media post, Trump stated that South Africa had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a US embassy representative at last week's summit in Johannesburg.
Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year, Trump wrote.
Members of the G20 – a gathering of the world's biggest economies – do not need an invite but can possibly be barred through visa restrictions.
Trump boycotted the Johannesburg summit over a widely discredited claim that South Africa's white minority is the victim of large-scale killings and land grabs.
In his statement, Ramaphosa noted that the US had been expected to participate in the G20 meetings, but it elected not to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg out of its own volition. He highlighted that some US businesses and civil society entities were still present at the event.
Due to the absence of the US delegation, the instruments of the G20 Presidency were therefore handed over to a US Embassy official at South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, which seemingly angered Trump further.
Previously, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims regarding a supposed white genocide in South Africa, stating that the government was killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them. The South African government has consistently rejected these claims as baseless.
Ramaphosa expressed regret that despite attempts to reset relations with the US, Trump continued to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.
Trump went on to declare that South Africa had demonstrated to the world they were not a country worthy of membership anywhere, halting all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.
In light of these developments, South African officials have called for solidarity among G20 members to protect the credibility of the summit and the rights of all member states.
The recent G20 summit, notably held in Africa for the first time, concluded with a declaration focused on multilateral co-operation regarding climate change and economic inequality, despite the US's objections that it was being weaponized by South Africa.
