South African President Cyril Ramaphosa fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to boycott the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit, declaring that “boycott politics doesn’t work” and labelling the American absence a self-inflicted wound on global diplomacy.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday, Ramaphosa emphasised that the November 22–23 summit in Johannesburg – the first G20 gathering on African soil – would proceed undeterred. “Their absence is their loss,” he said, adding that the U.S. was “giving up the very important role they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world.”
“Boycotting never achieves anything of great impact, because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead,” Ramaphosa continued, according to AFP reports.
Trump’s boycott, announced via a November 7 post on Truth Social, stems from longstanding allegations of a “white genocide” against Afrikaners – descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers – in South Africa.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote, vowing that “no U.S. government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue.”
Trump had initially planned to send Vice President JD Vance but reversed course over the weekend, calling for South Africa’s expulsion from the G20 altogether.
Despite the drama, confirmed attendees include China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signalling robust Global South participation.
As preparations continue at Johannesburg’s Nasrec Expo Centre, the boycott underscores deepening U.S.-South Africa rifts, potentially reshaping G20 dynamics ahead of America’s 2026 presidency in Miami.