South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has described US President Donald Trump’s announcement that South Africa will not be invited to the G20 summit in Florida next year as “regrettable”.
President Trump said in a social media post that South Africa refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a U.S. embassy representative at last week’s Johannesburg summit.
“Therefore, under my direction, South Africa will not receive an invitation to the 2026 G20 to be held next year in Miami, Florida.”
Members of the G20, a group of the world’s largest economies, do not require an invitation, but visa restrictions may prevent them from entering the country.
President Trump boycotted the Johannesburg summit over widely publicized and baseless claims that South Africa’s white minority were victims of mass genocide and land grabs.
“The United States was expected to attend the G20 summit, but unfortunately the United States has decided of its own volition not to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” Prime Minister Ramaphosa said in a statement. But he noted that some U.S. companies and civil society groups were in attendance.
He said that because the U.S. delegation was not in attendance, “the instruments of the G20 Presidency were formally handed over to the U.S. Embassy staff at the headquarters of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa.”
This secret transfer appears to have further angered President Trump, who has been critical of the South African government’s domestic and foreign policies.
He has previously claimed that white genocide is taking place in South Africa, and on Wednesday said the government was “allowing white people to be killed and their farms taken at random”.
The South African government has consistently rejected such claims as widely discredited and lacking reliable evidence.
“It is unfortunate that, despite President Trump’s efforts to reset relations with the United States, he continues to impose punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country,” Ramaphosa said.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, President Trump said South Africa “has shown the world that it does not deserve membership anywhere” and that he would “immediately suspend all payments and subsidies to them.”
South African officials called for solidarity and urged other G20 members to defend the integrity of the meeting and the rights of all members.
The G20 summit, held for the first time in Africa, ended with a joint declaration promising ‘multilateral cooperation’ on climate change mitigation and economic inequality.
The declaration was adopted this year by South Africa despite opposition from the United States, which accused it of weaponizing the group’s leadership.
Additional reporting by Pumza Fihlani from Johannesburg
