US Says South Africa ‘Weaponized’ G20 Leadership After Summit Adopts Declaration

The White House said South Africa weaponized its leadership of the Group of 20 this year after the G20 summit adopted a declaration addressing climate and other global challenges before the summit’s close on Nov. 23, despite U.S. objections.

The declaration, drafted without input from the United States, “can’t be renegotiated,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters on Nov. 22. This reflected strains between Pretoria and the Trump administration, which boycotted the event.

“We had the entire year of working toward this adoption, and the past week has been quite intense,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a boycott of the event earlier in November over accusations of human rights abuses against white Afrikaners and illegal land seizures.

The presidency of the G20 rotates. South Africa assumed it in December 2024 and will hold it through November, after which the United States will assume the role.

South Africa has reiterated its rejection of a U.S. offer to send the U.S. chargé d’affaires for the handover of the G20 presidency.

Magwenya said the South African president “will not hand over to a junior embassy official the presidency of the G20.”

“It’s a breach of protocol that is not going to be accommodated,” he said.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola later said Pretoria would assign a diplomat of the same rank as a chargé d’affaires to perform the G20 presidency handover at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on Nov. 22 that Ramaphosa was “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency” after initially saying that he would pass the gavel to “an empty chair.”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust U.S. objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponized their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” Kelly said.

She said that Trump looks forward to “restoring legitimacy” to the G20 next year, when the United States holds the rotating presidency.

The South African government did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

Declaration Adopted

On Nov. 21, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed reports from Ramaphosa that suggested that the United States would participate in the summit.

Leavitt said during a White House news briefing that the United States is “not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa.”

“The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognize that the United States will be the host of the G20,” she said. “They are receiving that sendoff at the end of the event. They are not there to participate in official talks, despite what the South African president is falsely claiming.”

On Nov. 22, the G20 adopted a new declaration without any input or support from the United States.

Although declarations are typically passed at the end of a given G20 summit, the gathered global leaders this time elected to adopt their declaration shortly after convening their two-day summit in Johannesburg.

The 122-point declaration calls for global efforts to help developing nations better contend with natural disasters, as well as climate-related efforts. Other sections of the declaration seek to help poorer countries manage their sovereign debt and increase economic stability.

On Sept. 5, the president confirmed that the next G20 summit will take place at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami in December 2026.

Trump’s Boycott

On Nov. 7, Trump announced that he would not be attending the G20 event this year, repeating accusations of human rights abuses against white South Africans.

“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.”

South African officials at the time called the president’s remarks regrettable and denied allegations of persecution.

“The characterization of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical,” the South African foreign ministry said in a Nov. 8 statement. “Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution is not substantiated by fact.”

Trump has criticized South Africa’s domestic and foreign policies, including its land expropriation law and its accusations that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip. Israel denies the accusations.

Since the end of apartheid, Pretoria has implemented what it calls affirmative action and Black Economic Empowerment policies, but the South African government has denied seizing land belonging to white citizens.

Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a boycott of a G20 gathering of foreign ministers in Cape Town, South Africa. In a Feb. 5 post on X, Rubio criticized South Africa for “expropriating private property” and for using the G20 platform to promote “solidarity, equality, & sustainability.”

“In other words: [diversity, equity, and inclusion] and climate change,” Rubio said, noting that it was not in the interest of the United States to waste taxpayer money or “coddle anti-Americanism.”

Ryan Morgan, Tom Ozimek, and Reuters contributed to this report.