South Africa party angry at Trump post suggesting G20 summit boycott
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — A post by Donald Trump suggesting he will skip the G20 summit in South Africa and repeating claims of alleged anti-white crimes has angered a radical party cited by the US president.
In a new lashing against South Africa, Trump repeated in an overnight Truth Social post unfounded claims of farmland being confiscated from white farmers who were being killed in a “genocide”.
“Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!” his post said.
South Africa holds this year’s presidency of the G20 group of leading economies and hosts its annual leaders’ summit in November.
Relations between South Africa and the United States have nosedived under Trump’s administration, which has repeatedly accused Pretoria of anti-white policies.
Asked about Trump’s suggestion that he would not attend the summit, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman said: “We were no longer expecting him to attend in any case.”
Trump’s post included video clips of the leader of the small, far-left opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema, making statements about occupying land and killing as a “revolutionary act”.
In a furious reaction, the party said on Saturday Trump was using it as an excuse “to avoid facing his global peers” after his announcement of trade tariffs on several countries.
It “is clear that he fears facing his counterparts following his humiliating tariff stunt,” it said, accusing the US leader of “economic genocide”.
The militant, communism-inspired party took 10 per cent of votes in elections a year ago.
It promotes “economic emancipation” through expropriation of land without compensation and nationalisation of mines and banks. However, this should be through constitutional means, the statement said.
Land reform is a fraught issue in South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid, with more than 70 percent of commercial farmland still in the hands of the white minority.
The government says it has no intention to seize land and none has been confiscated. Trump’s allegations of a “white genocide” echo unfounded claims from far-right lobbies.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to attend a G20 foreign ministers meeting in South Africa in February, saying it had an “anti-American” agenda.
