Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned Trump’s decision to exclude South Africa from the 2026 G20 summit, calling the move “regrettable”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as “regrettable” US President Donald Trump’s announcement that South Africa will not be invited to next year’s G20 summit in Florida.

Trump, in a social media post, claimed that South Africa had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a US embassy representative during last week’s summit in Johannesburg. He wrote: “Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year.”

While G20 members—representing the world’s largest economies—do not require formal invitations, Trump suggested the country could be barred through visa restrictions.

Trump boycotted the Johannesburg summit, citing a widely discredited claim that South Africa’s white minority is the target of killings and land seizures. In his post, he reiterated these claims, alleging the South African government was “killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them.”

The South African government has consistently rejected such assertions, describing them as baseless and lacking credible evidence.

Ramaphosa responded that the US had been expected to participate in the Johannesburg summit but chose not to attend. He clarified that, in the absence of the US delegation, “instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handed over to a US Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.”

He criticised Trump’s decision as punitive and based on “misinformation and distortions” about South Africa, despite the country’s efforts to reset bilateral relations.

Trump further asserted on Truth Social that South Africa had “demonstrated to the world they were not a country worthy of membership anywhere” and announced a halt to “all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”

In response, South African officials have called for international solidarity, urging other G20 members to defend the integrity of the forum and uphold the rights of all member states.

The recent G20 summit in Johannesburg, the first ever hosted in Africa, concluded with a joint declaration committing to multilateral cooperation on climate change mitigation and addressing economic inequality. The declaration was adopted despite objections from the US, which accused South Africa of “weaponising” its leadership of the group this year. (ARISE NEWS)

Update news