South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to bar South Africa from participating in next year’s G20 summit, firmly reaffirming the country’s standing as a founding member of the group, as seen on Reuters.
Washington boycotted the Group of 20 leaders’ summit hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg on November 22–23, during which Trump repeated widely discredited allegations that the country’s Black-majority government persecutes its white minority.
Last Wednesday, Trump said South Africa would not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Florida, claiming Pretoria had refused to hand over the group’s rotating presidency to a senior U.S. embassy representative who attended the summit’s closing ceremony.
South African officials countered that the presidency was indeed transferred to a U.S. embassy official.
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“South Africa is and will remain a full, active and constructive member of the G20,” Ramaphosa said in his state of the nation address on Sunday.
He also described as “blatant misinformation” Trump’s repeated assertions that South Africa is committing “genocide against Afrikaners,” descendants of Dutch settlers, and forcibly confiscating land from white citizens.
Ramaphosa added that despite the diplomatic tensions, U.S. businesses and civil society organizations remained actively involved in G20-related events in Johannesburg in November.
“We value those constructive ties and will continue to work within the G20 framework,” he said, underlining Pretoria’s intention to maintain ongoing dialogue.
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Image Credit: AsiaOne
