Faced with Trump’s attacks, some leaders choose to stall. Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, has decided to stand up.
The conditions for the host of the G-20 were very complicated. The US president set a diplomatic ambush for him last May, when during a visit by his South African counterpart to the White House he launched a manipulated rhetoric against the alleged ongoing genocide in South Africa against whites, a baseless accusation, since there have been incidents of violence, but nothing remotely close to the budgets to meet the definition of genocide. Trump showed a video, distributed newspaper clippings, put Ramaphosa in difficulty, who tried to defend himself in an extremely complicated situation. The scene was somewhat reminiscent of the attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the same Oval Office.
From there, Trump tightened the ropes to the point of not only avoiding going to the Johannesburg summit, but of boycotting it completely – brandishing the same accusations of genocide, while he received the Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu with praise -, leaving the American presidency empty and asking that the meeting not end with a joint declaration, arguing that the G-20 is an organization that works by consensus and, without Washington, could not issue a common text. Finally, the Trump administration wanted to send its chargé d’affaires to South Africa, Marc D. Dillard, to the closing ceremony of the summit to fill the void, since the United States is the next acting president of the group.
Faced with these circumstances, Ramaphosa and his government have decided not to give in. They pushed – with the support of others – towards the joint declaration, in which they also tried to include words anathema to Trump such as “gender” or “climate change”, as well as developing priorities at the antipodes of the Trumpist universe under the concepts of “solidarity”, “equality” and “sustainability”. And, on the other hand, they refused to celebrate the handover of presidencies with a charge d’affaires, arguing that a president does not pass the baton to a second-rate diplomat. The representative will soon be received in a room at the Farnesina.
The White House, through spokeswoman Anna Kelly, was quick to express its disappointment, accusing Ramaphosa of “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G-20 presidency”. “This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a joint leaders’ statement over strong and consistent US objections, highlights the fact that they have weaponized the G-20 presidency to erode the forum’s founding principles,” Kelly said.
Ramaphosa, who was one of the key figures in South Africa’s peaceful transition from apartheid to non-discriminatory democratic government, suffered a major political defeat in the 2024 elections, when the ANC, his party – and Mandela’s – emerged from the polls for the first time in three decades unable to govern on their own, with a decline from 57% of the votes received in 2019 to 40%. The poor showing has exacerbated a crisis that began with the corruption-induced erosion of the era of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, and was accentuated by the unsatisfactory early years of the Ramaphosa administration.
But the leader was able to recover the negotiating skills of his past and in this legislature he formed a government of national unity that brings together a dozen parties, excluding the most extremist ones. Not without serious problems – Ramaphosa had to suddenly fire the Police Minister last summer, embroiled in an alleged corruption scandal – but he has achieved results, such as the first increase in his debt rating in two decades.
Ramaphosa is also the leader who led South Africa’s leadership in seeking international justice for Israel’s actions in Gaza by lodging a complaint for possible genocide before the International Court of Justice.
The United States has expressed its hostility towards South Africa in several ways, including by imposing tariffs at the high end of the Trumpist threshold – 30% –. It also activated a reception program for alleged white refugees from South Africa. It is worth remembering that the South of the country is shaken by high rates of violence, of which people of color are victims. Despite this, Ramaphosa and his government did not back down from the G20.
