The diplomatic stage was set for a historic moment as Johannesburg prepared to host the G20 Summit on November 22 and 23, 2025—the first time the world’s leading economies would gather on African soil. But the event’s significance was quickly overshadowed by controversy when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a sweeping boycott, accusing South Africa’s Black-majority government of committing “white genocide.” His allegations, broadcast loudly on his social media platform, sparked outrage across continents and ignited fierce debate both inside and outside South Africa.
Trump’s boycott, announced on November 15, 2025, was blunt and incendiary. “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” he posted, alleging that “Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.” He added, “No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue.” The move was more than symbolic: Vice President JD Vance promptly canceled a planned trip to Kenya, where he was to discuss a new trade deal, in solidarity with the president’s stance, according to Atlanta Black Star.
The backlash was swift and multifaceted. Over 1,500 Afrikaners—white South Africans descended from Dutch, French, and German settlers—signed an open letter rejecting Trump’s narrative as “misleading” and “dangerous.” The signatories, a diverse group including journalists, professors, religious leaders, and business owners, stated, “We reject the narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-apartheid South Africa. We are not pawns in America’s culture wars. We are South Africans, part of a diverse, evolving nation still grappling with its past and striving toward a more just future.”
South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), also condemned Trump’s statements. ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula was unequivocal: “This is a blatant lie. There is no racial discrimination happening in South Africa. South Africa’s laws seek to redress imbalances created by apartheid, which was declared by the UN as a crime against humanity, particularly against Black people. We don’t take kindly to imperialist flirtations.” ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri added, “The ANC will not allow such divisive and regressive ideology to define Africa’s image or dictate its future. We will not be bullied, defined, or distracted by imperial nostalgia masquerading as concern.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking to reporters in Cape Town on November 12, 2025, made it clear that the U.S. absence would not derail the summit’s agenda. “We will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss,” he said. “In many ways, the United States is also giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world.” Ramaphosa emphasized that South Africa, as the current G20 chair, intended to use its presidency to champion Global South priorities, including boosting climate resilience and tackling debt in developing countries, before handing the baton to the United States the following year.
The U.S. government, for its part, labeled South Africa’s summit theme—“Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”—as “anti-American,” a characterization that drew further criticism from both South African officials and international observers. Ramaphosa dismissed the effectiveness of boycotts, saying, “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.”
Trump’s accusations of a campaign against white Afrikaners—claims he has made repeatedly since returning to the White House in January—have been widely debunked. Earlier in the year, he confronted Ramaphosa in the Oval Office with a video purporting to show systematic violence against white farmers, a narrative South Africa’s government firmly denies. In a controversial move in May, Trump offered refugee status to Afrikaners, with a first group of about 50 flown to the United States on a chartered plane.
Pretoria’s relationship with Washington has been further strained over a range of policy disputes, including South Africa’s legal case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the implementation of laws designed to empower Black South Africans as part of ongoing efforts to redress the deep inequalities inherited from apartheid. These tensions have only heightened in the lead-up to the summit, with South African officials determined not to let external pressure dictate their domestic or international agenda.
The G20 itself, founded in 1999, brings together 19 countries and two regional bodies—the European Union and the African Union. Representing 85 percent of global GDP and about two-thirds of the world’s population, the bloc is a powerhouse for international economic policy. For South Africa, hosting the summit was a milestone opportunity to highlight African and Global South concerns on the world stage. According to Atlanta Black Star, this was a moment of immense pride for many in the country, despite the controversy swirling around Trump’s boycott.
The reaction from South Africans was not limited to politicians and public figures. Poet Allan Kolski Horwitz, a white member of South African Jews for a Free Palestine, publicly denounced Trump as a “white supremacist” and accused him of supporting genocide in Gaza while falsely accusing South Africa of genocide. “You’ve lost any type of moral credibility,” Horwitz said in a video posted on X. “You cannot say you represent the free world when you support genocide.” Social media users echoed this sentiment, with one X user remarking, “He doesn’t want Blacks to be hosts. You will die a racist and life still goes on. G20 Summit in South Africa overshadowed by Trump’s boycott claims.”
The ANC and many white South Africans alike have insisted that the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy, though imperfect and ongoing, is not defined by the kind of racial violence Trump alleges. Instead, they point to efforts to build a more inclusive society, even as the legacy of apartheid continues to cast a long shadow. “We are South Africans, part of a diverse, evolving nation still grappling with its past and striving toward a more just future,” the open letter from Afrikaners reiterated.
Despite the absence of the United States, the G20 Summit in Johannesburg went ahead as scheduled. Delegates from around the globe gathered to debate pressing economic issues, with a particular focus on the needs and voices of the Global South. South African officials and civil society leaders expressed hope that the summit would be remembered not for who was absent, but for the historic decisions made and the progress achieved.
As the world’s eyes turned to Johannesburg, the message from South Africa was clear: the country would not be defined by outside narratives or distracted by divisive rhetoric. Instead, it would seize the opportunity to help shape the global agenda for years to come.