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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed “regret” at US President Donald Trump’s announcement that South Africa will not be invited to next year’s G20 summit in Florida.
Trump said in a social media post that South Africa refused to hand over its G20 presidency to a U.S. Embassy representative at last week’s Johannesburg summit.
“Consequently, on my instructions, South Africa will not receive an invitation to the 2026 G20 Summit, which will be held next year in Miami, Florida.”
Members of the G20 – a gathering of the world’s largest economies – do not need invitations but may be barred from attending due to visa restrictions.
South Africa’s presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said that despite the efforts of both countries, the top political leadership “should now accept” that “the relationship will not be reset” between the two countries.
Responding to a question on how to proceed, he told the BBC: “If the visa is refused, then we will have to move on and look beyond the G20 in the United States.”
He said their focus was on working with other G20 members to build momentum on issues to be considered at the Johannesburg summit.
The reason why Trump boycotted the summit was Claims that South Africa’s white minority were victims of mass killings and land grabs have been widely questioned.
Ramaphosa said in a statement that the United States was expected to participate in the G20 meeting, “but unfortunately, the United States voluntarily chose not to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg.” But he noted that a number of U.S. businesses and civil society entities were present.
He said that in the absence of the US delegation, “the paperwork for the G20 Presidency has been formally handed over to US Embassy officials at the headquarters of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa”.
The low-key handover appeared to further anger Trump, who has been critical of the South African government’s domestic and foreign policies.
He has claimed in the past that white genocide is taking place in South Africa, and on Wednesday he said the government was “killing white people and taking away their farms at will”.
The South African government has always denied such claims, saying its credibility is widely questioned and there is a lack of reliable evidence.
Ramaphosa said it was regrettable that despite Trump’s efforts to rebuild relations with the United States, he continued to take “punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.”
In a Truth Society post on Wednesday, Trump said South Africa was “showing the world that they are not a country worth joining anywhere” and announced it would stop “all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”
South African officials called for unity and urged other G20 members to defend the integrity of the meeting and the rights of all member states.
The first G20 summit in Africa ended with a joint statement pledging “multilateral cooperation” on mitigating climate change and economic inequality.
The declaration passed despite opposition from the United States, which has accused South Africa of weaponizing its leadership this year.
Additional reporting by Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg
