By Kanishka Singh and Anathi Madubela
WASHINGTON/ JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Donald Trump said South Africa will not be invited to take part in next year's G20 summit in Florida after Washington boycotted the leaders' summit in Johannesburg last week, which the African nation called a "punitive" measure against it.
The Group of 20 leaders adopted a declaration on Saturday to address the climate crisis and other global challenges despite U.S. objections, prompting the White House to accuse South Africa
of weaponising its leadership of the group this year.
"At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our U.S. Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
"Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's office called Trump's post "regrettable." Ramaphosa said that since the U.S. delegation was not present at the summit last week, "instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handover to a U.S. Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation."
TRUMP HAS BEEN CRITICAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
Since taking office for a second time in January, Trump has been critical of the South African government's domestic and foreign policies.
"It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the U.S., President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country," Ramaphosa's office said.
Trump has repeatedly alleged that South Africa's Black-majority government persecutes its white minority, and that there was a genocide of white farmers in the country, claims that have been widely discredited. In a White House meeting in May, Trump confronted South Africa's leader with false claims of white genocide.
Trump said on Wednesday that his administration was "going to stop all payments and subsidies" to South Africa, effective immediately. Trump signed an executive order in February to cut financial assistance for South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally, Israel.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto and Anathi Madubela and Nellie Peyton in Johannesburg; writing by Kanishka Singh and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by David Ljunggren, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)
