JOHANNESBURG: The White House has mounted a new verbal attack on South Africa over the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg this weekend. White House deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly hit back at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after Pretoria refused to allow a U.S. embassy delegation to take part in the summit’s closing ceremony.
The U.S. takes over the G20’s presidency next year. But Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters here at the summit their president won’t perform the ceremonial hand over to a junior diplomat. Washington had asked to send the embassy’s chargé d’affaires to the ceremony.
In what is becoming an increasingly fractious back-and-forth of bitter statements between Pretoria and Washington on several issues around the G20, Kelly told Fox News Digital, “President Ramaphosa initially declared that he would pass the gavel to an ‘empty chair.’ Now, he’s refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency at all.”
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Kelly continued “This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust U.S. objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponized their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles. President Trump looks forward to restoring legitimacy to the G20 in the U.S.’s 2026 host year.”
Trump withdrew all U.S. 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, has also lashed out at the G20, speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital, saying, “How can it be that in the long wish list of items that make up the G20 Leaders Declaration, there wasn’t space to condemn one of the greatest human rights crises in Africa – the continent wide jihadi war on Christians?”
He continued “How can it be that the first G20 hosted in Africa by an African government ignores how Africa — from Mozambique to Mali, the DRC, Nigeria, Sudan and so many other countries — has become the central front of Islamist terrorism?
“Just Friday, more than 300 girls and 12 teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic school in Nigeria,” he added. “Who will speak up for these children and save them? The silence of the G20 declaration on this and other Jihadi atrocities on the continent is a moral disgrace, revealing the gathering to be a heartless charade that history will judge harshly. God’s condemnation of Cain following his feeble defense of “am I my brother’s keeper?” stands as an eternal accusation against the leaders of the G20 — “What have you done? The blood of your brother calls out to Me from the ground.”
42 world leaders and major institutions such as the U.N. are represented at the summit. Only one of them, Italy’s President Giorgia Meloni, has addressed the issue of Christian persecution in the last few days – and she did that Friday, before the summit started. Posting on X, she wrote, “We ask the Nigerian government to strengthen the protection of Christian communities and all religious communities and to pursue those responsible for these heinous attacks.”
The White House could question the validity of the Leaders’ Declaration produced at the G20. Ramaphosa conceivably didn’t realize his microphone was open right at the beginning of proceedings Saturday. Journalists in the media center next door to the main summit hall could hear him telling leaders that the final 122-point resolution was ready for them to endorse – before they had discussed it.
As it stands, South Africa has officially marked the U.S. as ‘absent’ from this G20 summit. The only U.S. presence here this weekend was the American flag in the media center.
The final G20 South Africa Summit Leaders’ Declaration was released on Sunday with the only reference to religion, noting, “We condemn all attacks against civilians and infrastructure. We further reaffirm that in line with the U.N. Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state and that states should develop friendly relations among nations, including by promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government but did not receive a response.
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