South Africa to Pass G20 Presidency to US
This decision comes after Washington made the unprecedented move of boycotting the G20 summit in Johannesburg over the past weekend.
US President Donald Trump instructed members of his administration not to attend the gathering, citing alleged “human rights abuses” against white Afrikaners in South Africa—claims that Pretoria has firmly dismissed.
“The agreement is that we should do it low-key. It is not just a South African issue; the US also does not want a very big handover event,” said Zane Dangor, director-general of DIRCO, in an interview with a news agency on Monday.
Dangor noted that the handover will “most likely” occur on Tuesday “at the level of a senior official from DIRCO to the US charge d’affaires.”
South Africa assumed the rotating G20 presidency in December 2024, making history as the first African nation to lead the intergovernmental forum, which includes 19 sovereign states, the European Union, and the African Union.
The leadership was supposed to transition to the US at the conclusion of the Johannesburg summit on Sunday, but the handover was delayed amid disagreements over US representation.
Ahead of the two-day summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticized the US decision to skip the meeting, calling it “their loss,” and refused to hand over the presidency to “an empty chair.”
He emphasized that the G20 agenda was “moving forward” without Washington and stressed that Pretoria “will not agree to be bullied.”
Despite the absence of US participation, G20 leaders attending the summit on Sunday adopted a joint declaration, moving forward with collective agreements without Washington’s involvement.
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