US bars SA from G20: Godongwana not accredited for summit
· Citizen
South Africa has been dealt another blow after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was not accredited to attend the upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 finance chiefs in Washington, US.
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In November 2025, US President Donald Trump announced that Pretoria would be barred from attending the next G20 summit in America.
US tensions
Tensions between South Africa and the United States were at a high after the US boycotted the two-day G20 leaders’ Summit hosted at Nasrec in Johannesburg.
“The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa, because the South African government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific human rights abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers,” Trump said
A month later, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on the State Department’s Substack account that the State Department intended to bar SA from participating in the forum and replace it with Poland, “forging ahead with a new G20.”
Not accredited
Speaking to Bloomberg on Sunday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, as he travelled to the US to take part in Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Godongwana said that neither he nor South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago will be attending the G20 meeting.
“We are members of the G20,” he said.
“However, the US has not accredited us, which means that South Africa will not be part of the G20 for the whole of this year.”
The Citizen has contacted the US Embassy in South Africa for comment. This will be included once received.
G20 summit
The US took over the G20’s annual rotating presidency from South Africa in late 2024, and it will next pass to the UK.
The G20 traditionally meets on the sidelines of the biannual IMF and World Bank gatherings and on other occasions, and also holds a heads-of-state summit.
“We’ve taken a view that for us it is a holiday from the G20 this year,” Godongwana said. “We’re beginning in November with the UK Presidency.”
Trump singles out SA
Trump has singled out South Africa for harsh treatment on several issues since he returned to the White House in January, notably making debunked claims of white Afrikaners being systematically “killed and slaughtered” in the country.
He ambushed Ramaphosa in the Oval Office last year, playing a video in which he alleged a campaign against white farmers by the post-apartheid government.