US President Donald Trump (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
The department of international relations and cooperation has pushed back against a fresh attack from United States President Donald Trump, who signalled he would boycott the G20 summit in South Africa in November, again falsely accusing the country of persecuting white farmers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have already boycotted G20 meetings ahead of the summit of heads of state, in a clear indication that the US will seek to undermine South Africa’s presidency of the economic grouping for its year-long duration.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump asked rhetorically how he could be expected to attend the G20 in South Africa “when land confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation?”
“They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”
In a brief response, the international relations department said the government was compelled by the Constitution to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their race.
“South Africa belongs to all those who live in it. Our Constitution protects people not because they are black, not because they are white, not because they are in the majority, not because they are in the minority, but because they are human beings, every person has fundamental rights,” spokesperson Chrispin Phiri told the Mail & Guardian.
Trump first took aim at Pretoria in early February, announcing on Truth Social that he was cutting all aid to South Africa because it was “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly”. He also offered sanctuary in the US to Afrikaners he claimed were the targets of the land policy.
This was a clear reference to the Expropriate Act signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in late January. Ramaphosa’s office said at the time that Trump had based his decision on a misreading of the Act, which was not a confiscation instrument, but rather aimed to ensure public access to land in an equitable and just manner.
Pretoria says the relentless attacks from Washington since then, have been fuelled by a campaign of misinformation from the likes of Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum and South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump ally who has also been critical of his country of birth.
In February Rubio snubbed a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in South Africa, accusing Pretoria of using its presidency to promote an agenda alien to that of Washington. Later that month, Bessent also skipped a G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola was in Greece on Saturday at the start of a working visit during which he will attend the Delphi Economic Forum. The department said in a statement that Lamola would outline South Africa’s priorities as G20 president, “championing Africa’s role in shaping a more equitable and sustainable global future”.
“Our presidency prioritises bridging the gap between developed and developing economies, ensuring that Africa’s vast potential in green industrialization, youth innovation, and sustainable trade is unlocked through equitable partnerships,” Lamola said in the same statement.
To drive his point home against South Africa in his latest Truth Social post, Trump attached a video clip compiling public comments by Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema in which he criticised whites — a common refrain of his — including one in which he led a chant of the controversial “Kill the Boer, the farmer” slogan at a rally.
The constitutional court last month dismissed an application by AfriForum for leave to appeal previous rulings which found that Malema‘s chanting of the slogan did not amount to hate speech.
Malema has previously defended himself against the accusation, insisting that the chants — a relic of the struggle against apartheid — “should not be interpreted literally, but within the context of the struggle and the political message that it sought to agitate”.
On Saturday, the EFF accused Trump of using his latest attacks against South Africa as an attempt to “distract the public from the mess he has created globally with his uneducated reciprocal tariff system” — a reference to the US president’s punitive tariffs against trading partners which he has now postponed for 90 days after they triggered panic about the global economy, roiling financial markets.
“The EFF takes serious exception to Donald Trump’s connection of his false claims of land confiscations and a genocide against white South African families with the president of the EFF,” the party said in a statement.
“The EFF would like to tell the tariff wielding barbarian that he would be lucky to still be president of the United States by the time the G20 summit occurs in South Africa, following his recklessness and economic illiteracy, which has plunged the US economy into a recession and launched them into a trade war with China and Europe.”
