– Ramaphosa says the US must never think that South Africa will not go ahead with the summit because of their absence; other heads of state will be attending
JOHANNESBURG
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the United States on Wednesday to reconsider its position following President Donald Trump’s recent decision to boycott the G20 Leaders’ Summit scheduled later this month in Johannesburg.
“It is unfortunate that the United States has decided not to attend the G20. All I can say in my experience in politics is that boycotts never really work. They have a very contradictory effect,” Ramaphosa told reporters outside parliament in Cape Town.
He said the US must never think that South Africa will not go ahead with the summit because of their boycott.
“The G20 will go on. All other heads of state will be here, and in the end, we will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss,” he said.
South Africa is the first African country slated to host the group of powerful nations. The country assumed the rotational one-year presidency of the G20 last December.
Trump said last week that no American official will attend the G20 summit in South Africa, accusing Africa’s most industrialized nation of “human rights abuses” against the white Afrikaner population.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he criticized South Africa for the alleged “killing and slaughter” of Afrikaners — those descended from Dutch, French and German settlers — and the “illegal confiscation” of their farms and land.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” he wrote.
The South African government has denied several times allegations of systematic persecution, murder or confiscation of land targeting white Afrikaner farmers, saying the claims are not substantiated by fact.
Ramaphosa said he had told President Trump that the United States has an important role to play and he should attend the G20 summit, but now they have chosen to boycott it.
“Boycotting never achieves anything of great impact because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead. Our priorities will be decided on. For instance, the cost of capital issue will be embraced by all. The theme that we have — inclusiveness, diversity, solidarity — is being embraced by the world, including the Pope, whom I met recently,’’ he said.
Ramaphosa said “the US needs to think again whether boycott politics actually works, because in my experience, it doesn’t work. It’s better to be inside the tent rather than being outside the tent.”