By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US President, Donald Trump has said Washington will not send a representative to the G20 Summit holding in South Africa over his claims that white people are being persecuted in the country.
Trump who had earlier queried the role of South in the G20 said he would send vice-president JD Vance, instead of attending himself.
But now the White House says no US official will go. “No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue,” Trump posted on his Truth Social on Saturday.
The US leader said it was a “total disgrace” that South Africa is hosting the meeting, where leaders from the world’s largest economies will gather in Johannesburg later this month.
South Africa’s foreign ministry described the decision by the White House as “regrettable”.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa.
“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,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
But South Africa’s political parties, including those that represent Afrikaners and the white community in general have not claimed that there is a genocide in South Africa.
The South African foreign ministry said in a statement: “The South African government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical.
“Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution, is not substantiated by fact.”
Since returning to office in January, Trump has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against its white minority, including in May when when he confronted his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
The Trump administration has given Afrikaners refugee status, stating a “genocide” is taking place in South Africa.
Last week, the White House announced plans to cap refugee admissions at a record low, and give priority to white South Africans.
South Africa is expected to hand over the presidency of G20 to the United States this month after a rotational one-year term.
