'YOU WON'T SEE US'

UNITED States President Donald Trump has announced that no US government officials will attend the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg later this month. 

This follows a social media post accusing South Africa of “human rights abuses” and claiming that white Afrikaners are being “killed and slaughtered”.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social account: “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners, people who are descended from Dutch, and also French, and German settlers, are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.

“No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!”

The remarks, which have drawn global attention, follow months of tension between Washington and Pretoria over the US government’s Afrikaner resettlement programme - a scheme the South African government has previously described as baseless and misinformed.

In a brief statement, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) referred to its previous responses rejecting what it called false claims of “white genocide” in South Africa.

“The South African Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation has noted the content of a post by President Donald J. Trump on the Truth Social platform,” said spokesperson for International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola, Chrispin Phiri.

“The South African government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution is not substantiated by fact.

“Our position on this matter remains consistent with our previous statements,” he said.

Against this backdrop, Phiri said South Africa’s focus remains on its positive global contributions.

“Drawing on our own journey from racial and ethnic division to democracy, our nation is uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity, where shared prosperity bridges deep inequalities,” he said.

“We look forward to hosting a successful G20 leaders’ summit.”