Lamola rejects Rubio’s criticism, saying South Africa chooses its own path while remaining open to respectful partnership with the US.
South Africa does not seek the United States’ (US) approval for its path, but it will remain open to dialogue and a respectful partnership.
This is what International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said on Thursday in response to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s scathing post on South Africa.
“Our path is our own, chosen by our people and guided by our sovereign laws. But we do seek – and we will always extend – a hand of respectful partnership,” the minister said.
Rubio criticises SA, G20 and policies
This comes after Rubio criticised South Africa’s G20 Leaders’ Summit, the country and its policies in a post on Wednesday.
The Secretary of State said President Donald Trump and the US will not extend an invitation to South Africa to participate in the G20 during its presidency.
“There is a place for good-faith disagreement, but not dishonesty or sabotage,” Rubio wrote.
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In his response, Lamola emphasised that South Africa is a founding member of the G20, and no single member has the unilateral right to exclude South Africa from the G20.
Trump boycotted the G20 Summit held in South Africa in November, vowing that no official from the US would attend the international conference, which was the first to be held on African soil.
He decided to send the chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Pretoria to receive the symbolic seat on Trump’s behalf.
Lamola hits back at ‘sabotage’ claims
However, South Africa handed over the presidency to a US Embassy official at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) in Pretoria.
Lamola hit back at Rubio’s “sabotage” claims, saying that it is a matter of public record that the US chose not to attend South Africa’s G20 meetings.
“Given that absence, the notion of our ‘sabotaging’ consensus is not just incorrect; it misunderstands the very purpose of a forum like the G20,” the minister said.
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He added that South Africa’s role as host was not to force agreement but to create the conditions for it: a table of equals.
“True leadership doesn’t mean everyone leaves getting everything they want; it means everyone leaves feeling they have been truly heard,” Lamola said.
Rubio also turned his critique on South Africa’s domestic policies, saying that former president Nelson Mandela’s successors replaced reconciliation with “redistributionist policies”.
‘Redistributionist policies’
He said its policies discouraged investment and drove South Africa’s most talented citizens abroad.
“The numbers speak for themselves. 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,” Rubio wrote.
Lamola hit back, saying that South African policies of redress are not a political invention but a need to fulfil a promise made to all South Africans after apartheid.
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He added that South Africa’s democracy is 30 years old, and it requires an immense task to dismantle the entrenched architecture of over 300 years of colonialism and apartheid.
“No nation on earth has performed such radical surgery on itself overnight. We are building, brick by brick, the foundation of a new society,” the minister said. He further conceded that SA’s economy has faced profound challenges.
Trump says SA has an ‘appetite for racism’ and violence against Afrikaners
Rubio also mentioned that Trump highlighted that the South African government’s “appetite for racism and tolerance for violence against its Afrikaner citizens have become embedded as core domestic policies”.
“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,” the secretary of state said.
Lamola said this could not be further from the truth. He said the farming sector, where Afrikaner farmers continue to dominate and power South Africa’s food security, has more than doubled in value since 1994.
“South Africa is now the only African country in the top 40 global agricultural exporters, and exports are reaching record levels, just under $14 billion in 2024, and set to surpass this figure in 2025. No country with land grabs and invasion would reap such success,” he said.
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He added that the country will continue land reform through a just and equitable approach to ensure the farming sector is inclusive.
‘The world is watching’ – Lamola
As a final word, the minister said the world is watching, and it is weary of double standards.
“It is tired of lectures on democracy from those who seem to have forgotten that democracy, at its best, must listen as much as it speaks,” Lamola said.
He added that South Africa does not seek America’s approval for its path.
“In that spirit of shared humanity and clear-eyed hope, we remain open to dialogue, committed to maintaining our overall relations,” he said.
