JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull all American officials from the forthcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, stating that “boycott politics doesn’t work.”
President Trump announced the withdrawal over widely discredited claims of persecution against white people in South Africa.
The summit, marking the first time the G20 meeting will be held on African soil, is scheduled for November 22-23.
Ramaphosa: US is ceding influence
Speaking outside parliament, President Ramaphosa dismissed the impact of the US absence on the summit’s progression and suggested the decision would hurt Washington more than Pretoria.
Ramaphosa stated that the US’s “absence is their loss” and that the boycott would not prevent the crucial international meeting from moving forward, according to the AFP news agency. He further criticized the US for abandoning its global leadership role:
He added that the US was “giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world.”
Trump initially considered skipping the summit himself and sending Vice President JD Vance, but later doubled down on his accusations on social media. In a post, he called it a “total disgrace” that South Africa was hosting the gathering, asserting that the country should not be in the G20 at all.
Over the weekend, Trump escalated his rhetoric by claiming that “Afrikaners [people who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants] are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.” He concluded with a firm directive:
“No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue,” he added.
Ramaphosa maintained that such diplomatic maneuvers are ultimately ineffective: “boycotting never achieves anything of great impact, because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead,” AFP reports.
South Africa defends human rights record
The South African government has consistently refuted the US administration’s claims, stating that allegations of a white genocide are “widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence.”
The government also maintains that no white farmers have had their land confiscated without compensation, defending its land reform policies as necessary to address historical racial inequalities.
Also Read: South Africa’s Ramaphosa calmly rebuts Trump’s baseless ‘white genocide’ claims
The US withdrawal follows other absences; a close Trump ally, Argentinian President Javier Milei, has also indicated he will not attend, instead sending his Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno.
South Africa holds the current G20 presidency and is responsible for setting the agenda for the summit, where leaders of the world’s largest economies discuss major issues like global financial stability and climate change.
The US is scheduled to take over the G20 presidency from South Africa after the conclusion of this month’s summit.
