Donald Trump ‘Not Yet Committed’ to Gracing G20 Summit Amid Laboured US-SA Relations
- US President Donald Trump is not yet a guaranteed attendee at the G20 Summit in South Africa later this year
- SA is set to host the 20th meeting of heads of state and government in Johannesburg from 22 to 23 November
- Trump, who granted an Executive Order declaring Afrikaners persecuted persons in SA, said he'd see what happens
Source: Getty Images
Tshepiso Mametela is a seasoned journalist at Briefly News. A Head of Current Affairs, Mametela reported live from the presidential inauguration of Cyril Ramaphosa and has written articles on politics, crime, courts, accidents and other topics, including sports, at The Herald and Opera News SA, among others.
SOUTH AFRICA — President Donald Trump's visit to South Africa for the G20 Summit is as uncertain as the future of SA-US geopolitical relations.
A tumultuous week, thanks to a seismic political standoff stemming from an Executive Order granting white minority Afrikaners US refugee status, in addition to cutting funding to SA due to contentious land laws, lies at the heart.
Trump G20 attendance in limbo
Despite incessant attempts by the SA government and President Cyril Ramaphosa to clarify the misconception, Washington is set in its ways.
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It all comes amid South Africa's G20 presidency, which it assumed from Brazil on Sunday, 1 December 2024, for the next year until Sunday, 30 November 2025.
The Group of Twenty (G20) Summit, which gets underway in Johannesburg from 22 to 23 November, will be the 20th meeting of heads of state and government, and the first held in SA and on the African continent.
High expectations exist for the country to lead a progressive, people-centred, solution- and development-oriented presidency.
Following this, SA will officially hand the presidency to the US on 1 December. Trump's doubtful attendance for the summit became apparent during another round of Executive Order signings on Tuesday, 11 February 2025.
Speaking at the White House, Trump labelled the SA situation as dangerous.
In the same Oval Office gathering, with the media in attendance, Trump signed an Executive Order on US imports, doubling down on his World Economic Forum (WEF) commitment to a tariff of as much as 25% on steel and aluminium.
Briefly News reported that the move, which drew sharp criticism from Canada and the European Union (EU), threatening to hit back, would likely affect SA.
"I'm simplifying steel and aluminium tariffs so everyone understands exactly what it means. The 25% is without exceptions or exemptions. It applies to all countries. However, there is no tariff if it’s made in the US," said Trump.
When pressed about whether he would attend the G20 Summit, after US State Department Secretary Marco Rubio’s withdrawal from the Foreign Ministers meeting later this month, he said:
"We'll see what happens. But the situation, such as confiscating property, is dangerous and bad for many people. Even worse than that ... And we’re not going to make any payment until we find out what’s going on."
Despite Trump's insistence, the US Embassy in Pretoria said that life-saving humanitarian aid would be exempted from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes USAID freeze to SA.
The Embassy confirmed receiving full permission to restart the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has since 2003 saved more than 25 million lives worldwide.
Refuge-seekers 'crash' email servers'
In a related story, Briefly News reported that the floodgates opened, thanks to over 20,000 eager white South Africans knocking on the United State's door to take up refugee status in that country.
The deluge came full circle after Trump's express offer to resettle Afrikaners, which he made official after signing an Executive Order on Friday, 7 February.
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Source: Briefly News
