South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as regrettable the announcement by US President Donald Trump that South Africa would not be invited to participate in next year's G20 summit in Florida.
In a social media post, Trump stated that South Africa had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a US embassy representative at last week's summit in Johannesburg.
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.
Members of the G20 – a gathering of the world's biggest economies - do not need an invite but can possibly be barred through visa restrictions.
Trump boycotted the Johannesburg summit due to a widely discredited claim that South Africa's white minority is the victim of large-scale killings and land grabs.
In a statement, Ramaphosa indicated that the US's absence was a choice and noted the attendance of US businesses and civil society entities.
He explained that since the US delegation wasn't there, the instruments of the G20 Presidency were handed over to a US Embassy official at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
The low-key handover angered Trump, who has been critical of South Africa's domestic and foreign policies.
He has previously claimed that a white genocide was taking place in South Africa, stating that the government was killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them.
The South African government consistently rejects such claims as baseless and lacking credible evidence.
Ramaphosa lamented that despite efforts to reset relations with the US, Trump continued to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.
In his Truth Social post, Trump stated South Africa had demonstrated to the world they were not a country worthy of membership anywhere and immediately halted all payments and subsidies to the nation.
South African officials have called for solidarity, urging other G20 members to defend the integrity of the gathering and the rights of all its member states.
The G20 summit, held for the first time in Africa, concluded with a joint declaration focusing on multilateral cooperation against climate change and economic inequality, despite objections from the US.
Additional reporting by Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.