African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has hit back at US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after they accused the South African government of persecuting white Afrikaners and announced the United States would boycott the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg.
Trump sparked outrage on Friday after posting on Truth Social that no US officials would attend the event, claiming that Afrikaners were being “killed and slaughtered” and their farms “illegally confiscated.”
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue,” Trump wrote.
Rubio echoed the remarks on X (formerly Twitter), alleging that Afrikaners faced “violent racial discrimination” under the South African government, and praised Trump’s boycott decision.
The controversy comes just two weeks before South Africa hosts the 2025 G20 Johannesburg Summit on November 22–23 — the first ever on African soil — under South Africa’s presidency.
In response, Mbalula dismissed the claims as “false and imperialist interference.”
“This is a blatant lie. There is no racial discrimination happening in South Africa,” he told eNCA on Sunday. “South Africa’s laws seek to redress imbalances created by apartheid, which was declared by the UN as a crime against humanity. We don’t take kindly to imperialist flirtations.”
Mbalula said the summit would proceed regardless of the US’s withdrawal. “Our country must go ahead and the G20 will take place without them,” he declared. “It’s unfortunate that they’ve stirred up things which, in our view as the ANC, border on imperialism. We are an anti-imperialist organisation.”
He further accused Trump of “undermining South Africa’s sovereignty” and “misrepresenting its democratic principles.”
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola also dismissed the “white genocide” claims as “baseless and politically motivated,” citing official crime data showing that farm-related crimes affect both black and white South Africans.
“From April 2020 to March 2024, 225 people were victims of crime on farms in South Africa. Many of the victims, 101 of whom were current or former farmworkers who are mostly black. Fifty-three of the victims were farmers, mostly white,” Lamola said.
DIRCO spokesperson Chrispin Phiri added that Trump’s comments were “ahistorical,” pointing out that Afrikaners cannot be reduced to an exclusively white group.
Relations between South Africa and the US have grown increasingly strained following Washington’s criticism of South Africa’s land reform policies and its strengthening ties with Russia.
In January, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act, which allows for land expropriation without compensation in limited “just and equitable” cases. The move was met with sharp criticism from the US.
By midyear, tensions escalated as the US imposed sanctions on several ANC officials and levied a 30% tariff on South African exports — measures economists warned could reduce GDP growth by 0.2%.
Despite the friction, Mbalula reaffirmed that South Africa remains committed to hosting the G20. “We will host a successful G20 Summit with or without the US. We are a constitutional and democratic state that believes in fair trade relations — not in the dominance of superpowers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump confirmed that the 2026 G20 Summit will be held in Miami, Florida, tweeting: “I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami!”
