President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would not invite South Africa to the 2026 G-20 summit in Florida, citing alleged “horrific human rights abuses.”
“To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them,” Trump alleged in a Truth Social post. “At my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G-20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year,” he added.
The Embassy of South Africa did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Clayson Monyela, head of diplomacy for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, dismissed the notion that South Africa could be shut out.
“South Africa is a founding member of the G-20. We don’t get invited to G-20 meetings and leaders summit. Those are gatherings of members. If other members allow this then the G-20 will die,” Monyela told Fox News Digital.
“Other countries have already told us that they too will boycott the U.S. G-20 if South Africa is excluded,” Monyela added.
If carried out, the move would break with more than two decades of precedent and mark the first time a member has been formally excluded from the gathering of the world’s major economies.
The G-20, which brings together major advanced and emerging economies and accounts for roughly 80% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population, has historically operated on the principle of inclusion.
That tradition already was strained after the U.S. boycott of the 2025 meeting held in Johannesburg earlier in November.
Addressing the remarks by Trump, President Ramaphosa said, “South Africa will continue to participate as a full, active and constructive member of the G20. We call on members of the G20 to reaffirm its continued operation in the spirit of multilateralism, based on consensus, with all members participating on an equal footing in all of its structures. It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the US, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.”
The South African President said in the post that as the United States was not present at the summit, instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handed over to a US Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
