South Africa will not allow the United States to be represented by its embassy’s chargé d’affaires at the G20 Leaders’ Summit taking place in Johannesburg this weekend.
It is the first G20 Leaders’ Summit, being hosted on African soil.
Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told journalists at the venue of the summit on Saturday that President Cyril Ramaphosa will not be handing over the presidency gavel to a junior official of the US when the summit ends on Sunday.
In an open snub over what he called South Africa’s human rights record, US President Donald Trump had confirmed earlier this month that the US will not be represented at the summit but was considering a change of mind in the build-up to the gathering.
The G20 gathers the world’s most powerful economies including China, Russia, UK and France.
The US is supposed to replace South Africa as chair of the G20 but controversy remain over how this handover is to happen given the US’s conspicuous absence.
Chargé d’affaires are veiwed in diplomacy as a junior level representative of a country to the host nation and is the lowest-ranking head of mission. Handing over the gavel to such a low-rate diplomat does not sit well with South Africa’s position that the G20 presidency handover is a high-level ceremonial event.
South African officials regard Washington’s position to South Africa hosting the summit as diplomtic sabotage hence the attempt to downgrade its participation by the proposed presence of its chargé d’affaires to lead the US delegation.
In a bold declaration, Magwenya did not mince his words: “We have made our position very clear. This is a breach of protocol, what they were suggesting. You cannot have a head of state handing over the presidency and the leadership of such an important, premier forum for macro-economic issues and other related issues being handed over to a junior embassy official”.
Following a trilateral meeting with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ramaphosa had said Pretoria had received notice from Washington indicating a possible change in approach regarding U.S. participation.
The US was considering a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or other in the summit, prompting urgent consultations to assess its implications.
“This comes really at the late hour before the summit begins and so, therefore, we do need to engage in those types of discussions to see how practical it is and what it finally really means” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa had always insisted that “boycott politics never work.”
President Donald Trump had warned against issuing any joint declaration under Pretoria’s presidency, threatening to block consensus and insisting that any outcome be framed as a Chair’s Statement.
Ramaphosa told reporters that the G20 process was progressing decisively with or without US participation and expressed confidence that negotiations on a summit declaration were nearing completion.
WN/as/APA