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United States President Donald Trump has said that no official in his administration will attend the G20 summit in South Africa scheduled for later this month.
According to Trump, the decision to snub the summit was informed by "human rights abuses" going on in the country.
Riding on his previous claims that white people are being persecuted in the country on account of their race, Trump alleged a white genocide.
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.
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No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!
U.S President Donald Trump addressing the press on his preparation to host G20 in 2026
Trump had earlier on indicated that he would not attend the summit, saying that the U.S. would be represented by Vice President JD Vance before announcing a total snub.
South Africa responds to Trump’s claims
The South African government maintains that these claims are inaccurate and have "widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence".
Reacting to Trump’s move to boycott the summit, South Africa's foreign ministry described the decision as "regrettable".
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.
Fate of Vice President JD Vance's trip to Africa
The much-anticipated trip to Africa by Vice President JD Vance now hangs in the balance.
READ: Why Kenya features as U.S. Vice President JD Vance prepares for 1st trip to Africa
Vance was expected to attend the Group of 20 world leaders in Johannesburg in Nov 22-23 and have high-level engagements in the sidelines.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the trip that was expected to see Vance also land in Kenya will now not proceed.
Washington’s frosty relations with Pretoria
The relationship between Pretoria and Washington has been a frosty one is recent days with the two governments reading from different scripts on a number of issues.
File image of presidents Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa) and Donald Trump (U.S.)
Apart from Trump’s claims of persecution of Afrikaners (claims that the South African government has dismissed as factually inaccurate), Washington has had issues with the African country’s domestic and foreign policies.
READ: Trump just cited Kenya in address to top U.S. Military bosses. Here's what he said
South Africa’s land policy and its ongoing case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza are among the issues contributing to the frosty relations in Trump’s second stint at the White House.