South Africa has criticised the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to exclude the country from the 2026 G20 Summit scheduled to hold in Miami, Florida.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform, said South Africa would not receive an invitation because it allegedly refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a U.S. representative at the end of last week’s summit in Johannesburg.
He said the action informed his directive to stop “all payments and subsidies’’ to South Africa.
Reacting on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Trump’s announcement as “regrettable’’ and insisted South Africa remained a full member of the G20.
Ramaphosa explained that the U.S. delegation had opted not to attend the summit in Johannesburg and that G20 presidency instruments were later handed to an official of the U.S. Embassy at South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
South Africa’s Presidential Spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said the government had accepted that relations with Washington were unlikely to be reset despite efforts made at senior levels.
He noted that if U.S. visa restrictions were used to prevent South Africa’s participation in the 2026 summit, the country would “look beyond the G20 in the U.S.’’.
Trump had boycotted the Johannesburg summit over a discredited claim that South Africa’s white minority faced widespread killings and land dispossessions — allegations the South African government has repeatedly dismissed as misinformation.
Ramaphosa said it was unfortunate that the U.S. President continued to impose punitive measures on South Africa based on “distortions’’ about the country.
The President added that some U.S. businesses and civil society organisations had, however, been present at the summit.
South African officials have called for solidarity among G20 members and urged protection of the group’s integrity and the rights of all member states.
The Johannesburg summit — the first G20 meeting held on African soil — ended with a joint declaration committing members to multilateral cooperation on climate change and economic inequality.
The U.S. opposed the declaration, accusing South Africa of weaponising its G20 leadership.
