Anathi Ndevu
It looks like the US is doing everything it can to sabotage the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg.
Washington boycotted the event—fine, that was already expected.
But now it refuses to allow an official declaration because it chose not to attend.
This is even tough the rest of the G20 agreed on one.
The message from the US was basically: Adopt it, and face our wrath.
As analyst Dr Kingsley Makhubela explains, the G20 runs on consensus.
No consensus means no leaders’ declaration.
That leaves South Africa, as host, with the unprecedented option of issuing a chair’s statement spelling out who objected to what.
It would be a diplomatic first and a blow.
The tension didn’t start this week. The US has been gunning for South Africa all year.
They attended preparatory meetings, but when it came to the leaders’ summit, where South Africa was meant to hand over the G20 chair to Washington, they refused to show up.
They’ve even blocked the ceremonial handover entirely.
Now they making a fuss over the fact that South Africa expanded the G20’s reach to include the rest of Africa.
The US hates it.
Trump’s advisor Scott Bessent made it clear they want to turn the G20 back into an exclusive members-only club. A “G20, not G100,” as he put it, ahead of their 2026 Miami summit.
Pretoria’s response has been: carry on without them.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola insists the Us cannot be allowed to paralyse global decision-making.
President Cyril Ramaphosa spelled it out louder: “We will not be bullied.”
But Washington isn’t backing down.
They’ve now submitted an unofficial letter objecting to consensus.
Add to this, Trump’s repeated attack on South Africa for persecuting white people. A claim that is plainly false.
This diplomatic spat shows that the US isn’t even pretending to care about the Global South anymore.
