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Banners of various G20 leaders are displayed along a Johannesburg freeway, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n
Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s <\/b>biggest economy will be conspicuously absent from a meeting of the globe\u2019s 20 richest nations this weekend, as the U.S. boycotts the G20 Leaders\u2019 Summit hosted by South Africa.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is snubbing the event over false race-based claims and what it considers the summit\u2019s DEI \u2013 diversity, equity and inclusion — agenda. Since returning to office Trump has accused the South African government of confiscating white-owned land and allowing the killing of white Afrikaners.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know we have a G20 meeting in South Africa, South Africa shouldn\u2019t even be in the Gs anymore, because what happened there is bad,\u201d Trump said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The government here has repeatedly tried to correct the U.S. administration, to no avail.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa has kept his cool and was taciturn this week, saying: \u201cTheir absence is their loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s a huge blow to South Africa on the global stage.<\/p>\n
President Javier Milei of Argentina announced he isn\u2019t coming in solidarity with Trump.<\/p>\n
The leader of the world\u2019s second biggest economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping, is also not attending \u2013 though not as a slight \u2013 he isn\u2019t travelling internationally much these days. Then there\u2019s Russian President Vladimir Putin who can\u2019t come as he\u2019d face arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
William Gumede, an associate professor at Johannesburg\u2019s Witwatersrand University, says the summit controversy is a sign of the times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is symbolic of the fractured global moment that we are in\u2026 it\u2019s almost an alternative summit without China and without America,\u201d Gumede told NPR.<\/p>\n
The summit\u2019s themes of \u201csolidarity, equality, sustainability\u201d are anathema to the U.S. administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying South Africa is pushing a quote \u201cDEI and climate change\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n
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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center left and a South African official watch the Fire and Ivory Pantsula dance group perform upon his arrival at the OR Tambo International airport in Ekurhuleni on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025 ahead of the G20 leaders’ Summit.<\/p>\n
MARCO LONGARI<\/p>\n
However other countries whose leaders are attending, like Germany, have praised the theme.<\/p>\n
U.S. Spat deepens<\/b><\/p>\n
As foreign leaders like British Prime Minister Keir Starmer started to arrive in South Africa on Friday, the U.S.-South Africa spat deepened after Ramaphosa said the U.S. had made an eleventh-hour request to send a delegation after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have received notice from the United States\u2026about a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or another in the Summit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still need to engage with them fully on what their participation at the 11th hour means.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the South African leader said \u201cthe United States being the biggest economy in the world, needs to be there, so it is pleasing there is a change of approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hit back angrily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa, I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States and that language is not appreciated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the end of their media conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n
Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n
She said because the U.S. is taking over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa, the embassy\u2019s charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires\u2014seen as a junior official — would be there for the symbolic hand over.<\/p>\n
However Ramaphosa\u2019s spokesman said on X, quote \u201cThe president won\u2019t hand over to a charg\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the big questions is whether the end of the summit on Sunday will result in a joint declaration by the countries in attendance \u2013 which the U.S. is unlikely to sign.<\/p>\n
Tensions at home<\/b><\/p>\n
Aside from the geopolitical wrangling over the event, there has been discontent surrounding the summit from many in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Johannesburg residents have complained the city is only getting a cleanup for foreign guests despite having had crumbling infrastructure and chronic electricity and water shortages for years.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZH5TUZIPXBINVICRC5IQNQ33EE.jpg\")
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The Betereinders, a liberal Afrikaner organization, erected a billboard ahead of the G20 Summit showing South Africa’s rugby team the Springboks. The quote is from President Trump.<\/p>\n
The Betereinders<\/p>\n
\u201cOh they are fixing, the traffic lights are up\u2026the grass has been cut, all for? G20… You\u2019re showing off for visitors but you have no regard for the people that live in that city,\u201d journalist Redi Tlhabi said in her popular podcast.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the summit, on Friday, thousands of women dressed in black marked a day of action against gender-based violence, staying home from work and peacefully protesting by laying flat in parks and at university campuses.<\/p>\n
The group organizing the event, Women for Change, say they wanted to call attention to the high rates of femicide and violence in South Africa as the G20 convenes.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s been the war of the billboards.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s reason for snubbing South Africa has put race relations here in the spotlight and Afrikaners have differed in their responses.<\/p>\n
One right-wing Afrikaans rights group, which agrees with Trump that whites are being persecuted, has put up large billboards welcoming G20 delegates to \u201cthe most race-regulated country in the world\u201d \u2013 a reference to affirmative action laws.<\/p>\n
In response, a progressive Afrikaner association has mounted their own campaign, with billboards showing the country\u2019s beloved rugby team, the Springboks. In the photo, two smiling white Afrikaner players carry their Black captain Siya Kolisi on their shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrible things are happening in South Africa,\u201d reads the tongue-in-cheek tagline on the billboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Banners of various G20 leaders are displayed along a Johannesburg freeway, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 20,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[185110,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-587272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-africa-world-news-politics-home-page-top-stories","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-us","11":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115594795636480469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}