The country will remain an active member of the group despite a diplomatic rift with the US, its leader has said
South Africa will continue to participate as a full, active, and constructive member of the G20, President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed, brushing aside threats by his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to bar Pretoria from the group’s summit next year.
The US boycotted the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg on November 22-23 amid strained relations between Washington and Pretoria over Trump’s allegations that the African country allows “horrific” abuses against its white minority.
Last week, Trump said his administration would not invite South Africa to the 2026 summit in Florida because it refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a senior representative of the US Embassy who was at the closing ceremony. He said the country is not “worthy” of membership “anywhere.”
In a state of the nation address on Sunday, Ramaphosa announced that Pretoria later formally handed over the rotating leadership to Washington “observing the appropriate diplomatic protocols.”
He insisted that South Africa is a founding member of the G20 and will remain an active member in “its own name and right,” despite the “challenges and misunderstandings that have arisen between South Africa and the US.”
He said Trump’s longstanding accusations that South Africa is perpetrating “genocide against Afrikaners” and confiscating land from white people are “blatant misinformation.”
“As a country, we are aware that the stance taken by the US has been influenced by a sustained campaign of disinformation by groups and individuals within our country, in the US and elsewhere,” Ramaphosa stated.
He added that South Africa remains a “firm and unwavering friend of the American people,” despite the diplomatic rift, citing the “large numbers” of US businesses and civil society groups that participated in G20-related events in Johannesburg.
“We value the US and its people as a partner. We affirm our commitment to continue to engage in dialogue with the US, and to do so with respect and with dignity as equal sovereign countries,” he said.
