US To Push For South Africa’s Removal From G20, Install Central European Member: Report

South African officials said that they expect to be notified by the US that the nation’s delegations will be excluded from participating in G20 meetings when US takes on the role of the G20 presidency. The development, if true, will widen the rift between both countries.

Officials in Pretoria said that they believe the announcement will be made imminently.

According to Bloomberg, which first reported the development, rumours that South African will be excluded when US assumes the G20 presidency started circulating last week ahead of the leaders’ summit. Their report said that it is unclear if the US can make such a decision unilaterally.

The report said that US is also expected to push for South Africa’s removal from the G20 and will aim to install

a a new member from Central Europe, who are closer to US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The report also said that the most likely outcome of this decision will be US withholding the visas for South African officials expected to attend the dozens of meetings scheduled over the next year.

The US had opposed South Africa’s G-20 presidency over claims of a so-called white genocide, accusing South Africa’s Black population of committing genocide against White Afrikaners and seizing their land without compensation.

Any change to the G-20’s membership would still need unanimous approval from all member nations, just as it did in 2023 when India pushed for the African Union to be inducted as a full member during its presidency.

South Africa, meanwhile, is said to have turned down a US request for chargé d’affaires Marc Dillard to attend the leaders’ summit and formally take the G-20 handover. Pretoria reportedly made it clear that President Cyril Ramaphosa would not engage with a lower-ranking official. The handover was eventually done quietly between diplomats at South Africa’s foreign ministry in Pretoria on Tuesday.