In a move that’s sent shockwaves through global diplomacy, U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a full American boycott of the G-20 Summit at Johannesburg in South Africa on 22nd and 23rd November. No U.S. official will attend. Not even Vice-President J.D. Vance. President Trump offered an explanation for the boycott on his Truth Social account. In it, he accused South Africa of human rights abuses against White Afrikaners, claiming that they’re being killed and slaughtered in a so-called White Genocide.
For decades, South Africa was controlled under apartheid rule by the country’s White minority, many of them descendants of Dutch colonists. Apartheid, a system of legalised segregation, deprived the majority of citizens of basic rights and forced many Black South Africans to live in ethnic Bantustans. The system of apartheid officially ended in 1994 with the country’s first multi-racial, democratic election, which led to Nelson Mandela becoming South Africa’s first Black President.
Three decades on, some White South Africans, who make up a minority of the population, say that they are unfairly targeted by a new law that allows the South African Government to seize property for the public interest – in some cases without compensation. The so-called land seizure policy, known as the Expropriation Act, became law in February.
President Trump has singled out South Africa for harsh treatment on this issue since he returned to the White House in January. For its part, South Africa maintains that such laws are meant to empower Black South Africans as part of efforts to redress inequalities inherited from apartheid – and only in circumstances where it is just and equitable and in the public interest to do so.
So is this principled outrage or payback? Peel back the layers and this boycott reeks of deeper animus. It’s not just one thing that has upset President Trump. His long-simmering feud with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa goes far deeper.
It all started in 2018 during President Trump’s first term in office. He tweeted wildly about a large-scale killing of farmers in South Africa – a claim debunked as right-wing fiction, with farm murders affecting all races and comprising less than one per cent of the country’s total homicides.
Fast-forward to May 2025. In a jaw-dropping Oval Office ambush, President Trump dimmed the lights and rolled a video montage showing South African Opposition leader Julius Malema calling for violence against White farmers. The video included footage showing rows of crosses, which President Trump claimed, were from a burial site for murdered White farmers. However, as it turned out, these Crosses and bodies came from a Reuters news agency’s footage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – not South Africa! A quick fact-check by some media outlets exposed President Trump’s claims of a White Genocide on President Ramaphosa’s watch.
President Ramaphosa, ever the statesman, stayed composed, pointing to White South African tycoon Johann Rupert and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in the room to suggest that they would not be present if President Trump’s claims were true. However, President Trump would have none of it; he persisted with his line of argument. In the month of May alone, President Trump offered refugee status to a first group of about 50 Afrikaners who were flown to the U.S. on a chartered plane. Although his Government has slashed U.S. refugee caps to a historic low, he has carved out a fast-track for White Afrikaners. Critics call it a dog whistle to white nationalists. However, even some Afrikaners rejected the U.S. offer.
President Trump’s boycott of the G-20 Summit in South Africa escalates this personal vendetta into geopolitical warfare. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed President Trump’s call and skipped an earlier G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting. Apparently, he did not like the Summit Agenda’s focus on “diversity, inclusion, and climate change” because these words are code for anything “woke” in President Trump’s book.
That’s not all. South Africa’s foreign policy under President Ramaphosa has been a thorn in President Trump’s side. In December 2023, South Africa hauled Israel – a staunch U.S. ally – before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide in Gaza. The I.C.J. said that lsrael must prevent Palestinian deaths and ensure that aid flows into Gaza. it needs to be said though that the court issued this as a provisional measure; it has not yet made a final ruling on whether Israel is committing genocide, which is a process expected to take years.
South Africa doubled down. It welcomed the International Criminal Court’s arrest-warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2024. President Ramaphosa hailed it as upholding the international rule of law. A furious President Trump cut aid to South Africa. This affected shipments of life-saving medical supplies, including H.I.V. drugs. At more than 8 million, South Africa has the world’s largest population of people living with H.I.V. – making it a hub for research on the virus. President Trump has also taken issue with certain other South African foreign policies, including supporting the cause of the Palestinians. What makes it worse is that South Africa does not have full diplomatic ties with Israel. It has not had an ambassador in Tel Aviv since 2019. In 2023, it voted to close the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria.
Then there’s BRICS – the bloc President Trump views as an existential threat. President Ramaphosa’s South Africa joined BRICS in 2010. On his watch, South Africa has turbocharged its ties with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, co-hosting summits and pushing for de-dollarisation. President Trump fears that the BRICS will junk the U.S. dollar for a multipolar world where America’s veto power evaporates. President Trump, obsessed with preserving the U.S. dollar’s dominance, warned in November 2024 that any move by BRICS towards a common currency will invite 100 per cent U.S. tariffs. President Trump didn’t stop at that. He went ahead and slapped 30 per cent tariffs on South Africa, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. He also expelled South Africa’s ambassador.
For South Africa, chairing the G-20 for the first time on African soil, it’s a gut punch. However, a defiant President Ramaphosa insists that decisions on trade, inequality, and sustainability will roll on without Uncle Sam. He told journalists in the coastal city of Cape Town that the summit will take fundamental decisions and that the U.S. absence is America’s loss. He adds that in many ways, the U.S. is also giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world. In his own words, “They’ve chosen to boycott and boycotting never achieves anything of great impact because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead”.
The U.S. boycott is all the more awkward because it will host the G-20 Summit at his resort in the city of Miami next year.
Will President Trump’s snub to Africa rally the Global South? Or will it fracture alliances further? And can India as the Voice of the Global South bridge the divide?