By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The G20 Leaders Summit in South Africa ended on Sunday with the glaring absence of the United States — the next country to lead the bloc.
South Africa presented the two-day event as a triumph for multilateralism but it was marred by a boycott by the US, which has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against white-minority Afrikaners, a claim that has been widely discredited.
The first G20 summit in Africa also broke with tradition on Saturday by issuing a leaders’ declaration on the opening day of the talks, when declarations usually come at the end of the summit.
Ramaphosa said in his closing speech: “We’ve met in the face of significant challenges and demonstrated our ability to come together, even in times of great difficulty, to pursue a better world.”
Wrapping up his address, he said: “This gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.” It was Ramaphosa’s only mention of the country absent from the gathering of the world’s largest economies.
The G20 issued a declaration on Saturday emphasising the need to tackle climate change and achieve
“gender equality”. Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the Paris climate agreement the first day of his second term in office and has reversed many policies designed to tackle sexism, racism and homophobia.
The White House spokesperson Anna Kelly accused Ramaphosa of “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency”.
“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” she said.
South Africa had offered to arrange for an equivalent “junior” diplomat to formally hand the G20 presidency to the US at the foreign ministry. Officials had stated it would breach protocol for Ramaphosa to give it to the US acting ambassador.
International Relations minister, Ronald Lamola, told reporters: “From us, the ball has moved. We are done. It’s up to them. If they want to come, we are available.”
The 2026 summit is scheduled to take place at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, which is owned by the Trump Organization.
The G20 was formed in 1999 in response to the Asian financial crisis and is made up of 19 rich and developing economies, the European Union and the African Union, but some have questioned its effectiveness in helping solve the most prominent global crises,
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