The G20 2025 second Summit will be hosted by South Africa between 22 and 23 November 2025. The venue, Soweto, Johannesburg. President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to hand over the year-long presidency to United States President Donald J. Trump. Trump however has announced that neither he nor any representative of his administration be it Secretary of State Mark Rubio or Vice President JD Vance will attend. The reason? Trump and his inner circle have argued that a “white genocide” is taking place in the country against Afrikaner farmers. Ramaphosa, his ministers and diplomats dispute this. The lack of any formal presence by Washington at the Summit could open a diplomatic vacuum that could isolate the US in the long run.
Globalisation and multilateralism are not necessarily at an end. But if multilateralism is to survive, it needs to adapt. It will probably also be more fragmented. Countries with similar inclinations as South Africa will gravitate towards each other – if platforms are strengthened to support such, and to then have more refined agendas and address specific problems, not necessarily all of the world’s issues. Proving effectiveness – more so than talking about all the problems afflicting the world – will gain more purchase and support through the rest of the decade.
While Mr Trump will not attend the Summit, US Vice President JD Vance will. He is no less forward than his principal, and he will relish any opportunity to argue and highlight what he perceives to be problems with South Africa’s G20 agenda. How South Africa engages with any such disagreements – usefully, or as an excuse to argue back and get lost in tit-for-tat engagements – will determine whether it has learnt useful lessons in this new era of geopolitics and geoeconomics. South Africa needs to use every international platform to enhance its influence, and not be distracted by only ‘feeling’ it has enhanced its legitimacy.
The void the Trump administration is in the process of creating could do more damage to the US national standing than good. It could be left to China and the European Union (EU) to step up their game to full that void. Trump’s decision to isolate the US could risk undermining its global influence. Even the United Kingdom may move to support South Africa. In terms of multilateralism new alliances that were already formed will grow only stronger. South Africa is at the heart of international maritime trade in the southern hemisphere. Beijing and Brussels could move to cement their already burgeoning links with South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union. This will create a new pattern of the international order.
Although Vice President Vance was meant to attend the G20 to be presented with next year’s symbolic presidency of the bloc, his commander in chief (Trump) changed his mind. Pragmaticism and bilateral engagement have taken the furthest back seat in Washington. Pretoria is being humiliated for allegations of a so-called massacre that is greatly exaggerated. The accusations of “white genocide” put forward by the right-wing news media in the US is largely accusatory and divisive. It is President Ramaphosa and his administration’s turn to display pragmatism and argue the facts. Pretoria must step up and downplay the slight by the Americans. Trump clearly did this to be provocative. Ramaphosa must not allow this insult to jeopardize the country’s agenda at the Summit. He cannot move away from the current diplomatic trajectory.
South African Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Ronald Lamola said the US claims were “baseless and politically motivated.” “Claims of a ‘white genocide’ or its euphemism, Afrikaner persecution, are imagined and used for political expediency,” Lamola was quoted as saying by News24 as he cited police data showing that crime on farms affects both black and white South Africans. “From April 2020 to March 2024, 225 people were victims of crime on farms in South Africa. Many of the victims, 101 (of which) were current or former farmworkers who are mostly black. Fifty-three of the victims were farmers, mostly white,” Lamola said. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation also issued a statement in which it called Trump’s assertions an “ahistorical” characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group.
“The claim that this community faces persecution is not substantiated by fact. Our position on this matter remains consistent with our previous statements,” the statement said.
Trump has overplayed his hand through this diplomatic spat. He has not independently thought out or examined the basic facts. He has chosen too unilaterally boycott the G20 November 2025 Summit on the basis of his instincts. This is deeply uncritical and biased. The Trump administration and its associates are seeking to use South Africa’s Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 passed by parliament and Ramaphosa as an excuse to limit Pretoria’s influence across bilateral bodies. This has led to Trump and his advisors, overlooking facts on the ground framing the ongoing violence in rural communities as racial inspired attacks without looking at whose carrying them out and on who. The DIRC is right to oppose Trump’s delusions and present the facts and the truth about what is really happening in the South African Veld.
The Trump administration is seeking to have South Africa side lined by boycotting the G20 but they may end up isolating themselves instead. It depends on how the other members of the bloc and the rest of the world respond. So far only Argentina has supported Trump in the boycott. South Africa under President Ramaphosa should also consider addressing the matter of crime and who is responsible for the attacks in the rural areas. Security and penalties should be stepped up.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
