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Johannesburg: The White House has launched a new verbal attack on South Africa over this weekend’s G-20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg. White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly hit back at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after Pretoria refused to allow the US Embassy delegation to attend the summit’s closing ceremony.
America will take over the presidency of G-20 next year. But Ramaphosa’s spokesman told reporters at the summit here that his president would not schedule a formal handover of a junior diplomat. Washington had asked to send the embassy’s charge d’affaires to the ceremony.
“President Ramaphosa initially announced that he would give the ‘vacant chair’ a chance. Now, he is refusing at all to facilitate a smooth transition of the G-20 presidency,” Kelly told Fox News Digital, as Pretoria and Washington have become increasingly bitter over a range of issues surrounding the G-20.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the opening session of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday, November 22, 2025. (Mispar Apavu/AP Photo/Pool)
Kelly added, “This, combined with South Africa’s pressure to issue a G-20 Leaders’ Declaration despite persistent and strong US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponized their G-20 presidency to undermine the G-20’s founding principles. President Trump looks forward to restoring the G-20’s legitimacy in the US’s 2026 host year.”
Trump withdrew all US participation in the summit over his claims that some white South Africans were being racially discriminated against.
Now South Africa’s Chief Rabbi, Dr. Warren Goldstein, also took aim at the G-20, speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital, saying, “How can it be that in the long wish list of items included in the G-20 leaders’ declaration, there was no room for condemning one of the largest human rights crises in Africa – the continent-wide jihadist war on Christians?”
He added, “How can it be that the first G-20 hosted in Africa by an African government ignores how Africa – from Mozambique to Mali, DRC, Nigeria, Sudan and many other countries – has become a central front for Islamic terrorism?
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Members of St. Leo Catholic Church lead a procession in celebration of Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, April 13, 2025. (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)
“Just on Friday, more than 300 girls and 12 teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic school in Nigeria,” he said. “Who will speak up for these children and save them? The G-20 declaration’s silence on this and other jihadist atrocities on the continent is a moral disgrace, revealing that the gathering is a heartless charade that history will judge harshly. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ God condemned Cain after his weak defense. There is an eternal charge against the G-20 leaders – ‘What have you done? Your brother’s blood calls out to me from the ground.”
Forty-two world leaders and key institutions such as the United Nations are represented at the summit. Only one of them, Italian President Giorgia Meloni, has addressed the issue of Christian persecution in the past few days – and he did so on Friday, before the summit began. Posting on X, he wrote, “We call on the Nigerian government to strengthen the security of Christian communities and all religious communities and hold those responsible for these heinous attacks.”
The White House may question the validity of the leaders’ announcement presented at the G-20. At the start of proceedings on Saturday, Ramaphosa did not realize that his microphone was open. Journalists in the media center next to the main summit hall could hear him telling the leaders that the final 122-point proposal was ready for their support – even before they had discussed it.
The US flag at the G-20 media center in South Africa on November 22, 2025. (Paul Tilsley for Fox News Digital)
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As things stand, South Africa has officially marked the US as “absent” from this G-20 summit. America’s only presence here this weekend was the American flag in the media center.
The leaders’ declaration of the last G-20 South Africa summit issued on Sunday made the only reference to religion, saying, “We condemn all attacks against civilians and infrastructure. We further reaffirm that, consistent with the United Nations Charter, all States should refrain from the threat of territorial annexation or the use of force against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any State and that States should develop friendly relations among nations, including and without discrimination as to race, sex, and “Including promoting and encouraging respect for human rights.” Language, or religion, we condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Fox News Digital contacted the South African government but did not receive a response.
