A belligerent US President Donald Trump has announced that South Africa will not be invited to the next G20 Leaders’ Summit in Miami in 2026, as he upped his attacks on the country just days after SA hosted a successful 2025 event in Johannesburg.
SA is a founding member of the G20, but Trump continued his broadsides against Pretoria in a post on his social media platform on Wednesday night (SA time), again making false claims of a white genocide in the country. He also questioned SA’s membership of the G20 economic bloc.
Trump threatened to ‘stop all [US] payments and subsidies’ to SA – Africa’s biggest economy.
“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,” Trump said in a post on his ‘Truth Social’ platform.
“South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately,” he said.
Despite South African government officials (and former finance minister Trevor Manuel) earlier warning that the US is likely to exclude SA from G20 talks next year and not invite the country to the Miami summit, the SA Presidency labelled Trump’s move as “regrettable” in a statement issued around midnight.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has noted the regrettable statement by President Donald Trump on South Africa’s participation in the 2026 G20 meetings,” it said.
“The G20 South Africa 2025 Leaders’ Summit, attended by several Heads of State and Government, was hailed by all those who attended the summit as one of the most successful summits,” the Presidency added.
“The summit produced a declaration that affirmed the indisputable strength and value of multilateralism in response to the most pressing challenges facing the world,” it said.
Source: @realDonaldTrump via Truth Social
“It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the US, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country,” the SA Presidency added.
Trump, a few weeks ago, instructed senior US government officials, including Vice President JD Vance, not to attend the G20 Johannesburg summit as relations between his administration and the South African government deteriorated.
Earlier in the year, Trump himself said he would not attend the summit. Despite the boycott, the White House attempted to get officials from its Embassy in SA to accept the handover of the G20 Presidency from SA to the US at the summit on the weekend.
The South African government refused, stating that it was not within diplomatic protocol for President Ramaphosa to hand over the G20 Presidency to junior US Embassy officials, as the US chose not to participate in the main summit of G20 leaders.
SA G20 handover
In his post on Wednesday, President Trump lamented the fact that at the conclusion of the Johannesburg G20 Summit, “South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative of [the] US Embassy, who attended the closing ceremony.”
The SA Summit was attended by most G20 leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Canada’s Mark Carney, India’s Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, amongst others.
Meloni is seen as a Trump ally and was the only European leader at his inauguration.
Ramaphosa, however, invited almost 60 world leaders to the summit weekend, including non-G20 members who did not participate in the main summit session, such as Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and several African countries. Almost 50 world leaders were in Johannesburg at the weekend.
“As the United States was not present at the summit, instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handed over to a US Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation,” the SA Presidency noted in its statement on Wednesday.
“As one of the founding members of the G20, South Africa has always valued the spirit of consensus, collaboration and partnership that defines the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation,” it said.
“In keeping with this approach, the United States was expected to participate in all the meetings of the G20 during South Africa’s Presidency, but unfortunately, it elected not to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg out of its own volition.
“We are, however, pleased that US entities such as businesses and civil society organisations participated in large numbers in G20-related activities such as the B20 and the G20 Social. South Africa values their participation,” the Presidency added.
“South Africa is a member of the G20 in its own name and right. Its G20 membership is at the behest of all other members,” it pointed out.
“South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country and does not appreciate insults from another country about its membership and worth in participating in global platforms.”
“South Africa respects the sovereignty of all countries and will never insult or demean another country or its standing and worthiness in the community of nations,” the Presidency said.
