The first Sherpa and Finance Track meetings will be held in Washington from 15 to 16 December.
The United States (US), as the next host of the G20, has been adamant that South Africa will not be invited to participate in any of the meetings, including the leaders’ summit.
Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration standing firm that the US cannot bar South Africa (SA) from the forum, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has confirmed that the country will not participate in one of the most important G20 meetings.
Godongwana confirmed that SA will not be participating in the G20 finance track because it has not been accredited.
ALSO READ: China backs South Africa amid Trump’s G20 threats
G20 finance track
The forum brings together at least 20 of the world’s major economies to discuss global policies, and the finance track is one of the most crucial gatherings, led by finance ministers and central bank governors.
The finance track meeting is crucial because it drives the core economic, financial, and stability work that underpins all the G20 decisions.
According to Business Day, Godongwana confirmed the news on the sidelines of a government business breakfast ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting earlier in the week.
“We don’t need an invite, but [The US] is not accrediting us,” he said. “We’re not going because they’re not accrediting us.”
Accrediting for the G20 meetings
A G20 host nation manages attendance at the physical summit through the accreditation and visa processes, which serve as administrative tools to control access to the event. However, such decisions do not alter a country’s legal status or permanent membership within the G20.
For a founding member to skip a G20 finance track meeting might signal a loss of influence and leave its voice out of the core economic decisions that shape global financial policy.
The first Sherpa and Finance Track meetings will be held in Washington from 15 to 16 December. However, it is understood that SA has not received a formal communication from the US excluding it from the G20.
US replaces SA with Poland
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on the State Department’s Substack account that it intends to bar SA from participating in the forum and replace it with Poland, “forging ahead with a new G20”.
“Poland, a nation that was once trapped behind the Iron Curtain but now ranks among the world’s 20 largest economies, will be joining us to assume its rightful place in the G20,” he said.
“Poland’s success shows how partnership with the United States and American companies can promote mutual prosperity and growth. The contrast with South Africa, host of this year’s G20, is stark.”
‘Nelson Mandela was great, not his successors’
Rubio further explains how great SA has been under the leadership of former president Nelson Mandela, but accuses his successors of crippling the private sector and bankrupting the country.
“In Nelson Mandela, South Africa had a leader who understood that reconciliation and private sector-driven economic growth were the only path to a nation where every citizen could prosper,” he said.
“Sadly, Mandela’s successors have replaced reconciliation with redistributionist policies that discouraged investment and drove South Africa’s most talented citizens abroad. Racial quotas have crippled the private sector, while corruption bankrupts the state.
“As South Africa’s economy has stagnated under its burdensome regulatory regime driven by racial grievance, and it falls firmly outside the group of the 20 largest industrialised economies.”
‘Tolerating violence against Afrikaners’
Rubio, like Trump, has accused the current SA administration of being racist and of tolerating violence against Afrikaners.
“As President Trump has rightly highlighted, the South African government’s appetite for racism and tolerance for violence against its Afrikaner citizens have become embedded as core domestic policies,” he said.
“It seems intent on enriching itself while the country’s economy limps along, all while South Africans are subject to violence, discrimination, and land confiscation without compensation.”
‘You can’t sit with us’
He further added that the SA ignored their objections to consensus communiques and statements, therefore it will not invite SA to participate in the G20.
“It [SA] routinely ignored U.S. objections to consensus communiques and statements. It blocked the U.S. and other countries’ inputs into negotiations. It actively ignored our reasonable faith efforts to negotiate. It doxed U.S. officials working on these negotiations. It fundamentally tarnished the G20’s reputation.
“For these reasons, President Trump and the United States will not be extending an invitation to the South African government to participate in the G20 during our presidency. There is a place for good faith disagreement, but not dishonesty or sabotage.”
Talks about being excluded
Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for the Presidency to Moneyweb’s Jeremy Maggs that they are in talks with G20 member partners discussing the rules because no country can exclude another.
“We are discussing with our G20 member partners the issue around the principle of multilateralism, as well as the rules and norms of the G20 that no country can unilaterally single out or exclude another member,” he said.
“As you know, South Africa is a founding member of the G20. It does not need to be invited. Its participation is automatic and it’s a given.”
ALSO READ: ‘For now, we will take a commercial break’ – Presidency shrugs off US G20 snub
SA takes a commercial break?
Magwenya once hinted that SA might take a commercial break next year, but he said this was a light-hearted way of saying we recognise that we may not be able to engage fully, substantively, and meaningfully, considering all these hurdles that have been placed before us.
This is after acknowledging that American authorities have tools to frustrate or inhibit SA’s participation, such as not accrediting the country for the initial meetings.
“We are, however, looking beyond 2026 and looking at the G20 in 2027, and it is our firm belief, with a great deal of confidence, that there will be a platform where we will be able to once again engage more substantively and meaningfully, as well as to ourselves, as the continent, and as South Africa.”
‘This is bad for the forum’
Magwenya noted that the US’ decision to exclude SA from participating in the forum in 2026 sets a bad precedent in terms of the G20 itself, its standing, its rules and norms, as well as its broader credibility.
“It’s a dangerous path from a multilateral point of view to have one country utilising what you could essentially describe as a bilateral dispute and bringing it to a multilateral platform and clouding that platform over its own bilateral issues,” he said.
“This is something that all countries actually do recognise as a challenge and a problem. We believe they will be undertaking their own quiet engagements with the US to express their concerns, as well as their displeasure with the approach that the US has adopted.”
Removing Russia did not work
Magwenya highlighted that the plan to remove Russia from the G20 in 2022 did not work because of the forum’s rules and norms.
“Remember, that as late as 2022, there were attempts to remove Russia from the G20 following the invasion in Ukraine. Those attempts did not succeed because there was no consensus amongst all the members,” he said.
“So the G20 has to continue with its well-established rules and norms, and they cannot just randomly and overnight be altered by one member just because they have the responsibility to lead the group for a year.”
SA’s influence?
Magwenya reassured that SA will continue to influence the forum’s outcomes, as it remains part of the Sherpa [Track] network alongside other countries.
“France has already extended a formal invitation for South Africa’s participation in the G7 meetings, so we’re going to be the invited country there,” he said.
“So this is a temporary blip, as I sort of in a tongue-in-cheek way referred to it as a commercial break, but it does not have a contaminating effect on other platforms and other opportunities of engagement.”
NOW READ: Will Donald Trump grant SA visas to attend G20 Summit in US? Mashatile explains [VIDEO]
