The subdued exchange came after a planned handoff at the group’s summit fell through due to the absence of senior US officials
South Africa formally handed over the G20 presidency to the United States at a low-key event held at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Sherpa of South Africa’s G20 presidency and Dirco Director-General, Zane Dangor told Newzroom Afrika that both governments agreed to avoid a high-profile event.
”The agreement is that we should do it low-key. It’s not just a South African issue; the US also doesn’t want a very big handover event. So, we will hand over at the level of a senior official from Dirco to the US chargé d’affaires,” he said at the time.
The quiet exchange comes after days of diplomatic tension over the level of US representation at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg.
Over the weekend, IOL reported that International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola insisted that while the US was entitled to attend the summit, its representative needed to be of the appropriate seniority to receive the presidency gavel from President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South Africa had communicated that Washington could not send its embassy chargé d’affaires to stand in for President Donald Trump, or another senior envoy during the handover ceremony at the summit.
Clarifying the government’s stance, Lamola said the US was free to send “anyone”, provided the person held senior status.
”We did not deny anyone access. The United States is a member of the G20 and if they want to be represented, they can still send anyone at the right level. It is the leaders’ summit. The right level is the head of state, a special envoy appointed by the president of that country, or it could also be a minister,” Lamola said.
He added that while US embassy officials, including the chargé d’affaires, were welcome to participate in the summit proceedings, the chargé d’affaires could not receive the gavel from Ramaphosa.
“It’s up to them, but the issue of the handover — the president of the Republic of South Africa will not be handing over to the US chargé d’affaires. We will hand over to the US in the Dirco offices, or anywhere they may want within the borders of the Republic of South Africa,” he said.
On Saturday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed that no US representatives would attend the summit, describing Washington’s initial plan as “a breach of protocol”.
”You cannot have a head of state handing over the presidency and leadership of such an important forum for macro-economic and related issues being handed over to a junior embassy official,” Magwenya said.
A chargé d’affaires is typically the lowest-ranking head of mission, appointed when a country has no ambassador in place. They do not present credentials to the host head of state and are generally viewed as temporary or junior-level representatives.
