Ramaphosa rejects Trump threat to bar South Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to exclude Pretoria from the 2026 G20 summit, insisting that South Africa remains a founding and fully active member of the group.
Trump had claimed South Africa would not be invited to next year’s summit in Florida, accusing Pretoria of refusing to hand over the rotating presidency properly at last month’s G20 meeting in Johannesburg. South Africa says it formally transferred the presidency to a U.S. embassy official during the closing ceremony, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Washington boycotted the Johannesburg summit, with Trump repeating widely debunked allegations that the South African government persecutes its white minority. Ramaphosa called these claims “blatant misinformation,” rejecting accusations of “genocide against Afrikaners” or land confiscations from white citizens.
In his state of the nation address, Ramaphosa stressed that South Africa will continue to play a constructive role in the G20. He also noted that despite tensions between the two governments, U.S. businesses and civil society groups fully participated in G20 events hosted in Johannesburg, signalling Pretoria’s commitment to ongoing dialogue within the G20 framework.
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