SA still plans to attend G20 despite Donald Trump’s hostility: Mashatile

Deputy President Paul Mashatile says the government has every intention of attending next year’s G20 leaders summit in the US, despite US President Donald Trump saying he will not invite a South African delegation to any other US G20 activities.

Mashatile was addressing journalists of the Press Gallery Association in parliament on Thursday. He said the rift between Washington and Pretoria continues to endure even weeks after South Africa’s G20 leaders summit in Johannesburg last month.

“It is true that there have been some sort of tensions between South Africa and the US. As you know, President Trump decided the US could not participate in the G20 [this year], particularly the leaders summit. We have now handed over to them.

“Because they were not here, the handover would have been done through the international relations and co-operation department (Dirco) to their chargé d’affaires. There have been threats that South Africa may not be invited to the next G20 in the US. Our attitude is that, as members of the G20, we will attend that summit because we are members of the G20.”

Since returning to the White House for a second non-consecutive term, Trump has verbally attacked South Africa, falsely accusing the government of perpetrating a genocide against Afrikaners and confiscating their land.

Emanating from these tensions, Trump has imposed several unilateral tariffs on South African exports to the US market. He also refused to attend last month’s G20 leaders summit but slammed its adoption of a declaration as a violation of protocol on South Africa’s part.

Our position is we will send our team to continue with those engagements around issues of tariffs. So we will see. Once we get a firm position that we are not invited, we are not given visas; obviously, it would be difficult for us to attend

—  Deputy President Paul Mashatile

Mashatile said while it was still too soon to know if South Africa would be barred from attending the 2026 summit, the country enjoyed the support of its peers in the G20 to attend and participate in the coming G20 activities.

“Attending would mean that we would have to be given visas to get to the US. So if they don’t give us visas, we won’t be able to arrive there. There was also a question of whether other partners in the G20 are supporting us.

“Yes, all of the other countries are supporting South Africa’s participation. We have not raised the issue of boycotting the G20 in the US. It has not arisen, even from our other partners. If they raise it, we will discuss it, but that is not our preference. Our view is we should do everything to seek to participate in the G20 in the US next year in Miami.”

Regarding the ongoing trade tensions, Mashatile said South Africa would continue engaging the office of the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, with the hope of securing a trade deal with the US and a possible extension to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with South Africa included.

“Our position is we will send our team to continue with those engagements around issues of tariffs. So we will see. Once we get a firm position that we are not invited, we are not given visas; obviously, it would be difficult for us to attend.”

Mashatile stressed that the G20 is a multilateral structure whose summits’ engagements function on the basis of previous meetings, and it would therefore be “difficult” for the US to shred the G20 leaders summit declaration, which was adopted at the Johannesburg summit.

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