Cape Town – South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says he and Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago will not attend upcoming G20 finance meetings in Washington after the US declined to accredit them.
According to Bloomberg, speaking at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday, while en route to the United States for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings, Godongwana confirmed that neither he nor South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago will attend the G20 gathering.
“We are members of the G20,” the report quoted him as saying.
“However, the USA has not accredited us, which means that South Africa will not be part of the G20 for the whole of this year.”
In 2025, President Donald Trump launched the US presidency of the Group of 20 by wiping clean the website of outgoing host South Africa, which he said he was not inviting to next year’s summit.
The G20 website now has a picture of Trump in black and white that says “Miami 2026” and “The Best Is Yet to Come,” the title of the song popularised by Frank Sinatra.
Just energy transition
Trump refused all US attendance at last year’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, denouncing the post-apartheid government’s treatment of the white minority.
He also said that South Africa will not be welcome at the summit to take place at his Doral golf club in Florida.
This will be the first time a member has been excluded in the two-decade history of the bloc, which represents the vast majority of the global economy.
The Trump administration also rejected the agenda of the South African presidency of the G20, which had included a “just energy transition” and debt sustainability.
The State Department said that Trump will “return the G20 to focusing on its core mission of driving economic growth and prosperity to produce results.”
“We will prioritise three core themes: unleashing economic prosperity by limiting regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains and pioneering new technologies and innovations,” it said in a statement.
