US President Donald Trump.
It was up to United States President Donald Trump to decide whether he would attend the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa in November, International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday.
“The G20 is for all leaders of the G20 … they are all invited to attend,” Lamola told a briefing about South Africa’s year-long presidency of the forum and preparations for the summit.
“Obviously the US president, as a member state of the G20, will be invited, but it is up to the US whether they attend or not the G20 in South Africa’s leaders’ summit.”
The remark came as a first contingent of 49 Afrikaners were en route to the US to take up Trump’s offer of special refugee status, extended for alleged racial persecution that he has stated as a reason for snubbing the summit.
In mid-April, Trump, in a post on Truth Social, asked rhetorically how he could be expected to attend the G20 in South Africa “when land confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation?”
He continued: “They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”
South Africa’s international relations department responded at the time by saying the government was compelled by the Constitution to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their race.
“We have to reiterate that from the perspective of the South African government, in terms of the executive orders that have defined the South Africans as refugees, we have stated in the statement we issued on Friday that in line with the international definition, they do not qualify for that status,” Lamola said on Monday.
“There is no persecution of white Afrikaner South Africans in South Africa. This has been proven by a number of statistics in our country, including the police reports, which don’t back that assertion of persecution.”
He said violent crime in South Africa affected everyone, irrespective of their race.
“We are glad that a number of organisations, even from Afrikaner structures, have denounced this so-called persecution.”
Lamola said the government encouraged more such discussions to clarify “on the world stage this disinformation that has now taken root”.
He noted that Washington opted to be represented by the charge d’affaires of the local embassy at earlier key meetings of the G20, including the meeting of foreign ministers in February.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio snubbed that meeting for the stated reason that the government was seizing private land, a charge that has been made by Afrikaner pressure groups and taken up enthusiastically by right-wing commentators in the US, as well as the Trump administration.
“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” he posted on X. “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality & sustainability’’. In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
Rubio’s decision was not communicated through the usual diplomatic channels. Instead Lamola learnt of it on social media. Though the two foreign ministers are yet to meet, the diplomatic ice was somewhat broken by a phone call between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump ahead of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to South Africa last month.
Lamola noted that there had been some improvement in US engagement in the G20 in that the US secretary treasury, Scott Bessent, met South African officials during a second meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington in late April.
The narrative of Afrikaner persecution and land seizure was also put forth by Trump in his first term as US president. He tweeted in 2018 that white farmers were being killed on a large scale in South Africa.
Washington insiders have attributed this to a campaign by Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum and right-wing US commentators, among them Joel Pollak, who object to the government’s policy of racial redress and land redistribution.
That campaign found fresh ammunition this year in the promulgation of the Expropriation Act, which allows for expropriation of land without compensation in limited circumstances.
The presidency has said the furore was fuelled by disinformation, which it would be happy to clarify in discussion with the Trump administration.
Ramaphosa was asked both about Trump’s possible attendance at the summit and his claims of Afrikaner victimhood by reporters while he was attending the African CEO Forum in Côte d’Ivoire.
He said it was still a long way from November “and a number of discussions will be ensuing”.
“The G20 process consists of 130 meetings, the whole year, and we participate with a number of countries and the US also participates and leading to that summit, we will as South Africa hand over to the United States.
“One would hope that it will all happen seamlessly and in an ordinary and well-managed manner. So one will see how this whole process will all end up,” he added.
Ramaphosa was referring to the US leading the G20 in 2026.
It is customary that the country who takes over the presidency appropriates, at least in part, the themes of the previous presidency. Trump and Rubio’s pronouncements appeared to rule that out.
Ramaphosa on Monday said he was pleased that South Africa’s chosen themes of solidarity and equality were gaining support around the world.
“We expect that our key priorities will become top of mind in the discussions that are currently taking place leading up to the leaders’ summit in November.”