“The United States needs to reconsider whether boycott politics actually works, because in my experience it doesn’t,” President Ramaphosa said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said US President Donald Trump’s decision to boycott the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Johannesburg next weekend was “their loss”.
The United States has escalated tensions with South Africa over its strongly denied but widely rejected claims of persecution of the white Afrikaner minority and its efforts to hold Israel accountable for genocide in the Gaza Strip at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
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President Ramaphosa added in his speech on Wednesday: “The United States needs to reconsider whether boycott politics actually works, because in my experience it doesn’t work.”
President Trump said Friday that U.S. officials will not attend the Group of 20 summit on Nov. 22 and 23 this year, which brings together leaders of 19 of the world’s wealthiest and major developing countries, the European Union and the African Union. “It is an absolute disgrace that the G20 is being held in South Africa,” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, citing what he has wrongly labeled the treatment of white South African farmers as “genocide.”
Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has repeatedly claimed that white South Africans are violently persecuted and dispossessed of their land in the black-majority country, claims that South African government and Afrikaner officials have rejected.
For months, President Trump has targeted the black-led government for criticism, including its decision to accuse Israel, a staunch ally of the United States, of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in an ongoing case at the ICJ in The Hague.
Last month, Prime Minister Ramaphosa said the current Gaza ceasefire, which Israel routinely violates, would not affect his country’s genocide case against Israel, stressing that South Africa was determined to pursue the case filed in 2023 despite the ceasefire, which is part of a US-backed plan aimed at ending Israel’s war in the besieged region.
South Africa submitted 500 pages of evidence to the ICJ in October 2024. Israel’s rebuttal is due by January 12th. Oral hearings are scheduled for 2027, with a final verdict expected in late 2027 or early 2028.
The ICJ issued three interim measures, ordering Israel to stop acts of genocide and allow humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel has barely responded.
“It is unfortunate that the United States has decided not to attend the G20,” Prime Minister Ramaphosa told reporters outside South Africa’s parliament on Wednesday. “Never think that just because the United States does not participate in the G20 that it cannot continue. The G20 will continue. All other heads of state will be here as well. In the end we will make fundamental decisions. Their absence is their loss.”
Ramaphosa added that the United States is “abandoning the very important role it has to play as the world’s largest economy.”
President Trump previously confronted Ramaphosa with baseless claims that South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority was being killed in widespread attacks when the two leaders met at the White House in May. During the meeting, Ramaphosa encouraged President Trump to attend the G20 summit, which will be held for the first time in Africa.
The G20 was established in 1999 to bring together rich and developing countries to address issues affecting the global economy and international development. The United States, China, Russia, India, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are all members. The United States is scheduled to take over the rotating G20 presidency from South Africa at the end of the year.
President Trump’s claims about anti-white violence and persecution in South Africa echo claims previously made by conservative media commentators in the United States as far back as 2018.
President Trump and others, including South African-born Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, have accused the South African government of being racist against white people, citing affirmative action laws aimed at promoting opportunities for the oppressed black majority under the country’s apartheid system.
Ramaphosa’s government said the comments were the result of misinformation and a lack of understanding about South Africa.
Relations between the United States and Africa’s largest trading partner are at their worst since the end of apartheid in 1994. In March, the United States expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the United States over comments he made about Trump.
