SA labels G20 2026 absence ‘temporary blip’ despite US actions

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JEREMY MAGGS: Tension between Pretoria and Washington, as you well know, has hit a new high. The United States, now presiding over the G20, has formally excluded South Africa from next year’s meetings, prompting Pretoria to announce that it will take what it terms a “commercial break” from the forum until the next presidency cycles around.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola has responded sharply to US demands, insisting that South Africa will not bow to external pressure and does not need American approval. Let’s pull all of that together. I’m in conversation now with Vincent Magwenya, who speaks for the Presidency.

Read: Lamola: World can ‘move on’ without US at G20 gathering

Vincent, you’ve described, and welcome to you, South Africa’s next year’s absence from the G20 as a commercial break. What exactly does that mean in practice? Will the country still engage in any formal or working level G20 meetings, or is this a complete diplomatic pause?

VINCENT MAGWENYA: Thank you, Jeremy, for having me. Well, here’s what we’re doing, Jeremy, we are currently engaged with all the G20 countries except for the United States, on the substance of the outcomes of the Johannesburg summit with respect to advancing those issues and ensuring that those issues remain on the agenda, albeit with some difficulty, because the United States has already shown that it will have total disregard of those issues.

Secondly, we are discussing with our G20 member partners the issue around the principle of multilateralism, as well as the rules and norms of the G20 that no country can unilaterally single out or exclude another member.

As you know, South Africa is a founding member of the G20. It does not need to be invited. Its participation is automatic and it’s a given.

However, the American authorities do have at their disposal instruments that they can use to frustrate or inhibit our participation, so to speak. That’s what we are doing.

With that comment that I made on X [about] a commercial break, that was a light-hearted way of saying we recognise that we may not be able to engage fully, substantively, and meaningfully considering all these hurdles that have been placed before us.

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We are, however, looking beyond 2026 and looking at the G20 in 2027, and it is our firm belief, with a great deal of confidence, that there will be a platform where we will be able to once again engage more substantively and meaningfully, as well as to ourselves, as the continent, and as South Africa.

JEREMY MAGGS: Whichever way you look at it, though, the US decision to exclude South Africa does set a dangerous precedent, does it not, for multilateral institutions?

VINCENT MAGWENYA: That’s the point we are making to all our G20 partners and member countries, that this sets a very bad precedent in terms of the G20 itself, its standing, its rules and norms, as well as its broader credibility.

It’s a dangerous path from a multilateral point of view to have one country utilising what you could essentially describe as a bilateral dispute and bringing it to a multilateral platform and clouding that platform over its own bilateral issues.

Read: Belligerent Trump bars SA from US G20 in 2026

This is something that all countries actually do recognise as a challenge and a problem. We believe they will be undertaking their own quiet engagements with the US to express their concerns, as well as their displeasure with the approach that the US has adopted.

JEREMY MAGGS: What kinds of signals, then, are you getting from other G20 members in that respect? Are they also expressing a degree of concern or disquiet?

VINCENT MAGWENYA: They’ve been extremely supportive, and they’ve also expressed a very large degree of concern and disquiet, and they’ve undertaken to also raise these issues in their own bilateral engagements with the US.

You will have seen the statement coming from the German Chancellor [Friedrich Merz] about South Africa’s role in the G20 and the need to continue participating, with the Chancellor undertaking to engage President Trump on these issues. So there is a level of support.

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Remember, Jeremy, that as late as 2022, there were attempts to remove Russia from the G20 following the invasion in Ukraine. Those attempts did not succeed because there was no consensus amongst all the members.

So the G20 has to continue with its well-established rules and norms, and they cannot just randomly and overnight be altered by one member just because they have the responsibility to lead the group for a year.

JEREMY MAGGS: The difficulty, of course, is for South Africa to ensure that its trade relationships, its foreign investment flows and relationships with other global partners aren’t adversely affected by this diplomatic freeze with Washington. That’s a real possibility, isn’t it?

VINCENT MAGWENYA: No, not really. Our trade, diplomatic and bilateral relations with all other countries up to date have not been affected at all by the diplomatic dynamic with Washington.

In fact, I’ll go as far as saying even our own trade with the US has not been impacted, barring for the products and the goods that have been levied with higher tariffs.

We’ve seen an adjustment in some food goods, because of the high consumer prices in the US, there’s been an adjustment on those tariffs.

There is still a significant amount of trade taking place between ourselves and the US.

In fact, Jeremy, we are positively now focusing on what we call functional aspects of the relationship with the US: people-to-people exchanges, business-to-business relationships, relationships with civil society, academia, and so on.

We were extremely pleased to see a very high number of US businesses represented during the B20 in the lead-up to the G20, and that showed us that at a people-to-people, business-to-business level, you have a very functional relationship, which is the one that we would like to preserve, focus our energies on more, make sure that US businesses feel welcomed in South Africa, that the investment climate is conducive for them to invest and participate in the South African economy.

Listen/read: SA navigates fraught geopolitics to secure meaningful G20 consensus

That encourages us and that’s why we’re going to throw a lot of our energies into accepting that at the highest level of political leadership, it may be impossible to reset the relationship.

JEREMY MAGGS: Just very quickly. You will concede, though, that it’s going to be difficult for Pretoria to protect our influence in global and economic climate discussions because we are absent from formal G20 forums during the course of 2026.

VINCENT MAGWENYA: Not quite. I won’t concede because we’re still part of the Sherpa [Track] network with the other countries, so we’re still in the loop, if you like, of the discussions that are going to ensue as early as 16 December. That’s number one.

Number two, France has already extended a formal invitation for South Africa’s participation in the G7 meetings, so we’re going to be the invited country there.

There are also other multilateral platforms where South Africa’s views and participation is continuously sought after.

So this is a temporary blip, as I sort of in a tongue-in-cheek way referred to it as a commercial break, but it does not have a contaminating effect on other platforms and other opportunities of engagement.

JEREMY MAGGS: Vincent Magwenya from the Presidency, thank you very much for talking to us today.

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