A US boycott and sharp words -South Africa’s G20 summit opens under cloud. : NPR

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – World The world's largest economy will be conspicuously absent from a meeting of the world's 20 richest countries this weekend as the US boycotts a G20 leaders' summit hosted by South Africa.

The Trump administration is neglecting the event because of false claims based on race, as well as what it considers the summit's DEI agenda to be diversity, equity and inclusion. Since returning to office, Trump has accused the South African government of confiscating white-owned land and allowing the killing of white Afrikaners.

“You know we have the G20 meeting in South Africa, South Africa shouldn't even be in Group G anymore because what happened there was bad,” Trump said earlier this month.

The government here has repeatedly tried to correct the US administration, but to no avail.

Ramaphosa kept his cool and remained silent this week, saying: “Their absence is their loss.”

However, this is a huge blow to South Africa on the world stage.

Argentine President Javier Miley said he was not going to ally with Trump.

The leader of the world's second-largest economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping, is also absent from the event – although not by a small margin – as he travels little around the world these days. There is also Russian President Vladimir Putin, who cannot come because he faces arrest on an International Criminal Court warrant in connection with the war in Ukraine.

William Gumede, an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, says the controversy over the summit is a sign of the times.

“It's symbolic of the fractured global moment we're in… it's almost an alternative summit without China and without America,” Gumede told NPR.

The summit's themes of “solidarity, equality, sustainability” are anathema to the US administration, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said South Africa was promoting the quote “DEI and climate change.”

However, other countries whose leaders are Those present, like Germany, highly appreciated this topic.

American row deepens

As foreign leaders such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer began arriving in South Africa on Friday, differences between the US and South Africa deepened after Ramaphosa said the US had made an 11th-hour request to send a delegation after all.

“We have received notification from the United States… of a change of heart about participating in some form of the Summit,” he said. “We still need to have a full discussion with them about what their participation means at the 11th hour.”

However, the South African leader stated that “The United States, being the largest economy in the world, has to be there, so it's nice that there has been a change of approach.”

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt responded angrily.

“The United States is not participating in formal G20 negotiations in South Africa. I've seen the President of South Africa speak out a little bit against the United States and the President of the United States, and those remarks are not appreciated,” she said.

As the United States takes over the G20 presidency from South Africa, the embassy's charge d'affaires, considered a junior official, will be present for the symbolic transfer of power, she said.

However, Ramaphosa's spokesman said on X, quote: “The President will not hand over powers to the chargé ad interim.”

One big question is whether the end of the summit on Sunday will result in a joint declaration by the participating countries, which the United States is unlikely to sign.

Tension at home

In addition to the geopolitical differences over the event, the summit was met with resentment from many South Africans.

Johannesburg residents have complained that the city is being tidied up only for foreign visitors, despite years of crumbling infrastructure and chronic shortages of electricity and water.

“Oh, they're doing renovations, the traffic lights are on… the grass is cut, and all this for? G20… You show off to visitors, but you don't respect the people who live in this city,” journalist Redi Tlhabi said on her popular podcast.

Ahead of the summit on Friday, thousands of women dressed in black marked a day of action against gender-based violence by staying home from work and peacefully protesting by lying down in parks and university campuses.

The group organizing the Women for Change event says it wanted to draw attention to the high levels of femicide and violence in South Africa during the G20 meeting.

Then there was the billboard war.

Trump's snub to South Africa has brought race relations there into the spotlight, with Afrikaners reacting differently.

One right-wing Afrikaans rights group, which agrees with Trump that whites are being persecuted, has put up large billboards welcoming G20 delegates to the “most racialized country in the world,” a reference to affirmative action laws.

In response, the Progressive Afrikaner Association launched its own campaign, featuring the country's favorite rugby team, the Springboks, on billboards. The photo shows two smiling white Afrikaners carrying their black captain, Siya Kolisi, on their shoulders.

“Terrible things are happening in South Africa,” reads the ironic slogan on the billboard.