Donald Trump says South Africa will not be invited to next year’s G20 Summit in the United States, which is set to take place at his Miami golf resort.
The fallout dates back to May, when Trump blindsided President Cyril Ramaphosa during a Washington visit meant to repair relations. Instead of easing tensions, Trump played a video pushing a false “genocide” conspiracy about White South Africans, sparking outrage.
Things worsened when the US boycotted the G20 Summit in Johannesburg and sent Pretoria a diplomatic warning not to issue a joint leaders’ declaration. South Africa ignored the pushback and adopted the document anyway.
The clash deepened after Pretoria rejected a US request for chargé d’affaires Marc Dillard to accept the G20 handover on Washington’s behalf, saying Ramaphosa would not engage with a lower-ranking official. The handover eventually happened quietly between diplomats in Pretoria.
