US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he will not attend this month’s Group of 20 (G20) talks in South Africa, accusing the host government of an “anti-American” agenda. Rubio’s announcement came days after US President Donald Trump criticized South Africa over land reforms aimed at correcting inequalities created during the apartheid era.
Posting on X in Trump’s style, Rubio said he would boycott the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg on February 20-21. “South Africa is doing a lot of bad things. It’s expropriating private property. It’s using the G20 to promote ‘unity, equality and sustainability,’” Rubio wrote in his post, “namely DEI and climate change.”
Trump has been continuously attacking DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, since returning to the White House last month. “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not to waste taxpayer money or suppress American dissent,” he said.
South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola on Thursday rejected Rubio’s claims in a statement, saying that the new land reform law “does not involve the voluntary displacement of land/private property.” “This law is similar to eminent domain laws,” he said, referring to long-standing US laws that allow the federal government to acquire property for public use.
Lamola said South Africa is “a sovereign and democratic country committed to human dignity, equality and rights.” “Our G20 presidency is not limited to climate change but also to ensuring fair treatment for countries in the Global South and a fair world system for all,” he said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this week dismissed Trump’s claims that South Africa was “forcibly grabbing” land and said he was ready to explain his government’s land reform policy to his US counterpart. On Tuesday, Ramaphosa raised concerns with Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, the South African-born and world’s richest man, about the “misinformation” being spread by the US president.
Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa. Three decades after the end of apartheid, most farmland is still owned by white people. There is pressure on the government to implement reforms. The absence of the United States, the world’s largest economy, would be a major blow to the G20, which represents the world’s largest economies.
The meeting would have given Rubio his first opportunity to meet his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as Trump has pushed for diplomacy in the Ukraine war.
