By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat not to invite Pretoria to the next year’s G20 summit, reaffirming South Africa’s status as a founding member of the group.
Washington was conspicuously absent from the Group of 20 leaders’ summit held under South Africa’s presidency in Johannesburg on November 22-23.
This spans from Trump’s widely discredited allegation that South African government persecutes its white minority.
Trump had last week said South Africa would be excluded from the G20 summit to be held in Florida next year.
Washington cited Pretoria’s refusal to hand over the G20 presidency to a senior representative of its embassy who was at the closing ceremony in Johannesburg.
South Africa says it handed over the rotating presidency to a U.S. embassy official.
“South Africa is and will remain a full, active and constructive member of the G20,” Ramaphosa said in a state of the nation address on Sunday.
He also described as “blatant misinformation” Trump’s repeated claims that South Africa was committing “genocide against Afrikaners”, descendants of Dutch settlers and confiscating land from white citizens.
Ramaphosa noted that despite the diplomatic rift, U.S. businesses and civil society groups engaged actively in G20-related events in Johannesburg in November.
“We value those constructive ties and will continue to work within the G20 framework,” he said, signalling Pretoria’s intention to maintain dialogue.
