South Africa will not receive an invitation to attend the G20 Summit to be hosted under the US Presidency in Florida next year, President Donald Trump said as he described the country as not being “worthy” of membership anywhere.
The US takes over the Presidency of the G20 from South Africa and will head the grouping from December 1, 2025, through November 30, 2026.
“The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa, because the South African Government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific human right abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Wednesday.
He said South Africa has “demonstrated” to the world “they are not a country worthy of membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.” “At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our US Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony. 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,” Trump said.
South Africa assumed the year-long G20 Presidency on December 1, 2024. It hosted the grouping’s leaders for a summit meeting in Johannesburg from November 22 to 23, the first time that the G20 Summit was held on African soil.
Trump has previously said that he will host the G20 leaders for the 2026 summit at his golf club near Miami. Trump did not travel to Johannesburg for the Summit and had said that no US Government Official would attend as long as the human rights abuses continued.
Trump accused South Africa of “killing” white people and slammed the country for refusing to hand over the G20 Presidency to a senior American representative from the US Embassy.
“To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them. Perhaps, worst of all, the soon to be out of business New York Times and the Fake News Media won’t issue a word against this genocide,” he said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa noted the “regrettable” statement by Trump on his country’s participation in the 2026 G20 meetings.
A statement issued by the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa said that the G20 South Africa 2025 Leaders’ Summit was attended by several heads of state and governments and was “hailed by all those who attended the summit as one of the most successful summits.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the G20 Summit in Johannesburg and said that the “successful” summit will contribute to a prosperous and sustainable planet.
“I’d like to thank the wonderful people of South Africa, President Ramaphosa and the Government of South Africa for organising the Summit,” Modi had said.
The statement added that as the United States was not present at the summit, 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.
It said that as one of the founding members of the G20, South Africa has always valued the spirit of consensus, collaboration and partnership that defines the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
The United States was expected to participate in all the meetings of the G20 during South Africa’s Presidency, but unfortunately, it elected not to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg out of its own volition, it added.
“South Africa is a member of the G20 in its own name and right. Its G20 membership is at the behest of all other members. South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country and does not appreciate insults from another country about its membership and worth in participating in global platforms,” it said.
South Africa respects the sovereignty of all countries and will never insult or demean another country or its standing and worthiness in the community of nations, it added.
Emphasising that it will continue to participate as a full, active and constructive member of the G20, South Africa called on G20 members to reaffirm its continued operation in the spirit of multilateralism, based on consensus, with all members participating on an equal footing in all of its structures.
“It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the US, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country,” it said.
In February this year, just weeks after being sworn in as US President for a second term, Trump issued an order condemning South Africa’s “shocking disregard” of its citizens’ rights by enacting legislation that enabled the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.
