Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would skip 20 (G20) talks in South Africa amid the escalate spat between Washington and Pretoria over the controversial land expropriation law.
Rubio’s announcement on Wednesday comes days after President Donald Trump threatened to curb aid to South Africa over the passage of a law allowing land seized without compensation under certain circumstances.
South Africa, which will serve as the G20 presidency until November 2025, is scheduled to hold a meeting of foreign ministers in Johannesburg from February 20th to 21st.
“South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriation of private property. Using the G20, “solidarity, equality, [and] Sustainability. “In other words, Day and climate change,” Rubio said in a post on X.
“My job is not to smooth out waste taxpayer money or anti-Americanism, but to move forward with the national interests of the US.”
I will not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriation of private property. Use the G20 to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability. In other words, DEI and climate change.
My job is to advance the national interests of the United States.
– Secretary Marco Rubio (@secrubio) February 5, 2025
Rubio’s announcement was greeted with disappointment by critics of the Trump administration.
“This weakness show hurts our national security and the economy while benefiting China,” said Andrew, who served as senior deputy reporter at the White House under former US President Joe Biden’s administration. Bates said in X’s post.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Ian Chung, an associate professor of international relations at the National University of Singapore, said Rubio’s announcement coincided with Republicans’ distrust of multilateral international organizations during the Trump era.
“The world has recently withdrew from the Trump administration from the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organization, and withheld funding for certain organizations in the UN system,” Chong told Al Jazeera.
“Rubio, who is not participating in the G20, is consistent with this trend. Please note that during Trump’s first term, the US withheld from appointment of the World Trade Organization to the appeals body. It is a WTO appeal. The mechanism has effectively stopped.”
On Monday, Trump urged a rebuttal from Pretoria, accusing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of “confiscating the land” and abusing “a certain class of people.”
Ramaphosa said the law is not a “means of confiscation” but is part of a “constitutionally mandated legal process” that ensures public access to the land in a “fair and fair manner.”
Under the law signed by Ramaphosa last month, the government can seize land without compensation, which is “fair, fair and public interest,” such as when property is not in use.
Ramaphosa and his African National Congress defend the laws needed to mitigate the huge disparities in land ownership that stem from the heritage of the apartheid racist system.
The Democratic Union (DA), a major South African opposition party and a member of the ANC-led national unified government, opposes the law, warning that it could undermine property rights and scare foreign investment.
However, the DA, which derives most of its support from whites, Indians and colored (multi-ethnic) South Africans, has expressed “deep concerns” about Trump’s threats to aid and misconceptions that the land could be seized “optionally” He said there is.
Land ownership is a sensitive and polarizing issue in South Africa due to the history of black people being driven out of their land and denied access to their property.
According to a 2017 government audit, black people in South Africa account for more than 80% of the population, but only 4% of privately owned farmland.
White South Africans, derived from the majority of British and Dutch settlers, hold about a quarter of the land despite being just over 7% of the population
Trump’s threat comes as his administration freezes almost all foreign aid and most staff at the US Organization for International Development (USAID) freezes to administrative leave.
According to latest government data, Washington allocated roughly $440 million in support for South Africa in 2023.
Source link
