President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday accused the United States of trying to “bully” South Africa after Washington confirmed it would boycott this weekend’s G20 summit in Johannesburg and urged Pretoria not to issue the traditional leaders’ declaration.
“It cannot be that a country’s geographical location or income or army determines who has a voice and who is spoken down to,” Ramaphosa told delegates at a civil-society gathering ahead of the November 22–23 summit. “It basically means there should be no bullying of one nation by another,” he said, in a clear swipe at Washington.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have deteriorated sharply this year over a series of foreign and domestic policy disputes.
The US embassy, in a diplomatic note to Pretoria, said it would skip the summit because South Africa’s priorities “run counter to the US policy views and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency.”
South Africa said the boycott undermined Washington’s role in the grouping.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola insisted Pretoria would still pursue a leaders’ declaration. “We will not be told by anyone who is absent that we cannot adopt a declaration or make any decisions at the summit,” he said.
G20 bloc comprising 19 countries. South Africa has chosen “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” as its theme for the meeting.
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