JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 20 — The United States’ absence negates its role over the Group of 20 (G20)’s conclusions, Chrispin Phiri, the spokesperson of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, has said, reiterating that Pretoria would not be bullied.
Phiri made the remarks on Wednesday in response to Washington’s decision not to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, as well as its objection to the issuance of any outcome document presented as a G20 consensus without U.S. consent.
Earlier, South African G20 Sous-Sherpa Xolisa Mabhongo confirmed receiving a letter from the United States, in which Washington said it would only accept a “chair’s statement” reflecting a lack of consensus.
“We cannot allow coercion by absentia to become a viable tactic,” Phiri said. “It is a recipe for institutional paralysis and the breakdown of collective action.”
South Africa assumed the rotating G20 presidency on Dec. 1, 2024, becoming the first African country to hold the position. The United States is scheduled to take over the presidency on Dec. 1.
Tensions between Pretoria and Washington flared up shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House in late January.
He signed an executive order to freeze U.S. aid to South Africa in February, accusing the Expropriation Act, a land reform law South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed in January, of “discriminating” against the country’s white people.
The South African government rejected the accusations as lacking “factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.”
In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that he would boycott the G20 summit in Johannesburg because of “bad things” happening in the country.
In March, Washington expelled then South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, further straining the bilateral relations. The expulsion followed an earlier address by the South African ambassador, in which he criticized Trump.
In May, Trump confronted visiting South African President Ramaphosa at the White House with conspiracy theories on “white genocide” in South Africa, which Ramaphosa firmly denied.
Ramaphosa, who was in Washington seeking to improve trade terms and ease bilateral tensions, rejected Trump’s assertions during their meeting.
The South African president refuted the notion that white South Africans are fleeing the country due to racist policies, saying the majority of crime victims in his country are Black. (Xinhua)
