G20 2026 is not your party, ‘we don’t get invited’, South Africa tells Donald Trump
Presidency says the Trump administration has no standing to ‘invite’ South Africa – a G20 founding member – to the summit in 2026.
Donald Trump has launched another furious attack on South Africa, declaring that the country will not receive an invitation to the 2026 G20 Summit in Miami, Florida, and instructing that all US payments and subsidies to Pretoria be halted immediately.
The statement, released on Truth Social on 26 November 2025, was met with sharp diplomatic and public rebuke from South African officials, who stressed that the country is a founding member of the G20 and its seat is not dependent on US invitations.
Trump said his decision was fuelled by an anti-white “genocide” – a false, discredited allegation – and a recent diplomatic spat over the handover of the G20 presidency.
Trump alleged that South Africa had demonstrated it is “not a country worthy of Membership anywhere”. His primary justifications were the South African government’s alleged refusal to acknowledge “horrific Human Right Abuses endured by Afrikaners” and his claim that the country is “killing white people, and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them”.
These assertions have been robustly dismissed by the South African government as being based on “misinformation and distortions”.
And the African National Congress (ANC) and the FW de Klerk Foundation, among many sections of South African society, have previously rejected Trump’s claims, labelling them as “untrue, dangerous and not supported by any credible data”.
SA’s Founding Membership and Protocol Row
The second stated reason for the purported ban related to diplomatic protocol following the successful G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg earlier in November 2025. Trump claimed the move was made because South Africa “refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our US Embassy”.
The handover incident referred to was an earlier conflict where South Africa declined to let President Cyril Ramaphosa transfer the G20 presidency to a US chargé d’affaires at the summit, citing a breach of protocol.
Subsequently, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) confirmed the G20 presidency instruments were “duly handed over to a US Embassy official” at the DIRCO headquarters between diplomats of similar ranking.
In a statement released after Trump’s social media post, South Africa’s Presidency expressed regret with the US president’s assertions, saying that South Africa is a founding member of the G20 in its own right, with membership being “at the behest of all other members”.
South Africa emphasised its status as a “sovereign constitutional democratic country” and did not appreciate insults regarding its value in global platforms.
DIRCO’s Monyela tells Trump administration: ‘We don’t get invited’
DIRCO deputy director-general Clayson Monyela took to social media to directly challenge Trump’s narrative, clarifying the fundamental nature of G20 participation.
Monyela insisted that South Africa, as a founding member, did not require an invitation to meetings and leaders’ summits, as “those are gatherings of members”. He warned that if other G20 members permitted such unilateral actions, the G20 forum would “die”.
Monyela also highlighted South Africa’s key role as a G20 Troika member, representing the outgone, current and incoming presidencies.
This staunch defence aligns with previous dismissals of US pressure, such as Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s stance regarding visa threats, addressing fears that visa denials could obstruct South Africa’s participation in future G20 summits.
Ntshavheni said if the US wished to exclude them, they would need to inform the other 19 members.