World leaders are gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa’s financial capital, this weekend for the annual Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit – the primary ever to be held in an African nation amid a boycott by the United States over extensively discredited claims that the host nation mistreats white people.
About 42 international locations and establishments might be represented on the assembly that begins on Saturday, however the US beneath President Donald Trump — who has condemned South Africa’s place as host — might be conspicuously absent.
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Washington, a founding member of the group, is subsequent in line to take over the rotating presidency from Pretoria, and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to symbolically hand over to an empty chair if crucial.
On Thursday, Ramaphosa stated the US had reached out on the final minute to agree on some type of participation, however didn’t disclose particulars. However inside hours, White Home spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt hit again, accusing Ramaphosa of “operating his mouth,” insisting that the US place had not modified, and that the South African chief’s feedback had been “not appreciated by the president [Trump] or his group.”
She did, nonetheless, point out that the US would ship an official for the handover ceremony, because it takes over the G20’s presidency from South Africa. Performing US ambassador to South Africa Marc D Dillard is perhaps the official tasked with this accountability, although this has not but been confirmed.
Regardless of the drama over the US attendance, Johannesburg has been buzzing with exercise all week in preparation for the summit, as employees clear up and embellish the bustling metropolis. Ramaphosa himself drew shock when he donned dungarees and picked up cleansing instruments.
Vivid flowers and vibrant G20 billboards adorn the streets by means of which dignitaries will go on their means from the OR Tambo Worldwide Airport into town.
At the least 3,500 further police officers have been deployed to bolster safety for the high-level visitors, whereas the military has been positioned on standby.
Some South Africans, although, have voiced criticism of the costly occasion, pointing to the financial challenges the nation faces. A number of protests by organisations from local weather motion teams to ladies’s rights defenders are additionally deliberate across the airport and the venue of the summit.
Right here’s what we all know in regards to the summit:
What’s the G20, and when is the summit?
The G20 was based in 1999 as a casual financial grouping of the world’s largest financial powers.
But it surely was the 2008 financial disaster that propelled the G20 into prominence: In a world the place main World South economies like China and India had been taking part in more and more important roles, the G7 grouping of seven rich nations was not geared up to cease the monetary massacre that spanned continents.
Since then, G20 leaders have met no less than as soon as yearly for summits.
The grouping initially comprised 19 international locations (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the UK, and america), plus the European Union because the twentieth entity. Since 2023, the African Union has been a member, too. Mixed, they symbolize 85 p.c of worldwide gross home product (GDP) and two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants, based on the G20.
G20 nation representatives meet all year long to debate urgent points. However in November, the leaders meet for the annual summit.
The leaders’ summit marks the fruits of the host nation’s yearlong stewardship and normally ends with a non-binding leaders’ declaration. In Brazil final November, leaders issued an announcement reaffirming their dedication to attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Growth Objectives by a 2030 deadline.
South Africa has held the presidency since November 2024 and can hand over to the US on November 30, 2025. This weekend’s assembly will happen over two days from Saturday, November 22 at Johannesburg’s 150,000 square-metre Nasrec Expo Centre, the nation’s largest conference centre.
Who’s attending?
Forty-two international locations and organisations have confirmed their attendance, based on South African officers chatting with reporters on Monday.
At the least six heads of state should not attending the summit, although aside from the US, the others are sending high-level representatives, Overseas Minister Ronald Lamola stated, describing this attendance price is a “success” for South Africa.
Among the most notable names anticipated on the summit embrace: China’s Premier Li Qiang, French President Emmanuel Macron, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
📍Landing in Joburg for an intense week forward throughout the continent.
• Leaders’ Assembly with South Africa, with key discussions on commerce, uncooked supplies and clear vitality
• First-ever G20 Summit on African soil
• Remaining pledging occasion of our Scaling Up Renewables for Africa… pic.twitter.com/2txQkN4B0R
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) November 20, 2025
African Union Fee chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, President of European Fee Ursula von der Leyen and UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres will even be current.
Why is the US boycotting the summit this yr?
Trump’s absence from the assembly would be the most notable and has threatened to overshadow the summit’s agenda and undermine South Africa’s place.
Final week, the US president denounced South Africa’s management of the G20 and stated he wouldn’t attend, citing alleged discrimination in opposition to South Africa’s minority white inhabitants and inaccurately alleging a “genocide” of white farmers.
Trump has made a number of unsubstantiated claims of “genocide” since he returned to the White Home in January, following South Africa’s passing of a new law in search of to deal with disparities in land possession, three-quarters of which is owned by the nation’s white minority.
In February, the Trump administration lower overseas support to South Africa, a transfer which could possibly be a significant menace to the nation’s HIV response, based on specialists.
Throughout a heated exchange with Trump on the White Home in Might, President Ramaphosa denied claims of a “white genocide” and stated South Africa typically experiences excessive crime charges, which have an effect on all ethnicities.
In July, Trump stated that whereas he may not attend the G20 summit, he would ship Vice President JD Vance as a substitute. Nevertheless, on November 8, Trump doubled down on claims of “human rights abuses” by South Africa in a submit on his social platform Fact Social, and stated no US official can be attending the discussion board.
“It’s a whole shame that the G20 might be held in South Africa,” he wrote, whereas recounting his claims once more. “No US Authorities Official will attend so long as these Human Rights abuses proceed. I stay up for internet hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.
South African officers have tried to downplay the US’s absence. Ramaphosa, chatting with journalists in Cape City after Trump’s announcement, stated the motion would doubtless not have an effect.
“It’s unlucky that america has determined to not attend the G20,” he stated. “All I can say in my expertise in politics is that boycotts by no means actually work. They’ve a really contradictory impact.”
In one other remark to the media, Ramaphosa advised reporters the US boycott was “their loss”. The South African chief, this week, nonetheless, stated he would hand over the presidency to an empty seat meant for the US consultant in a symbolic gesture, and confused the necessity to restore ties with Washington.
Who else won’t attend?
- Argentina’s Javier Milei, a Trump ally, won’t attend the assembly both however will ship Overseas Minister Pablo Quirino. Milei didn’t state why he withdrew.
- China’s Overseas Ministry on November 14 additionally introduced that President Xi Jinping had cancelled his attendance on the assembly, and would as a substitute be represented by Prime Minister Li Qiang. The ministry didn’t state why, however South Africa and China have a thriving commerce relationship. President Xi was within the nation for the 2023 BRICS summit, one other casual grouping of creating powers.
- The Kremlin introduced in October that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t attend the assembly, and would as a substitute ship his deputy head of the presidential administration, Maxim Oreshkin. Putin is the topic of a world arrest warrant issued by the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) for alleged warfare crimes in Ukraine and, as a signatory, South Africa is legally obliged to arrest him if he units foot within the nation.
- Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cancelled his journey after 25 ladies had been kidnapped this week from their faculty amid a safety disaster within the nation.
- Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum won’t attend as a result of scheduled appointments within the nation, the federal government introduced this week. Overseas Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente normally represents her overseas.
What’s on the agenda?
South Africa, as host, will emphasise points which have an effect on World South international locations and is hoping to influence leaders to collectively pledge their dedication to addressing matters from financial inequalities to bettering growth financing for susceptible international locations.
South Africa will even foyer international locations to decide to scaling up their spending on climate-disaster resilience and catastrophe responses globally; improve the quantity of local weather finance flowing from richer to poorer nations; present higher debt restructuring and aid for poorer nations through worldwide monetary establishments and bilateral lending; and prioritise native communities and supply international locations amid a race amongst world powers for entry to important minerals, a few of that are concentrated in African international locations.
South Africa has not hosted a world occasion on this scale because the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Regardless of the snub from the US, this is a vital second for the nation, and for Africa, Gilad Isaacs, govt director of South African suppose tank, the Institute for Financial Justice, advised Al Jazeera, saying Pretoria has put “actual points” affecting African international locations on the agenda this time.
“The US boycott won’t derail the work,” Isaacs stated. “The credibility of the presidency might be measured not by the presence of anyone nation, however by whether or not the agenda set within the pursuits of the World South is carried by means of and utilized in different boards.”
What protests are deliberate?
A number of protests are being deliberate across the occasion, beginning on Friday. Deputy nationwide commissioner for policing Lieutenant Common Tebello Mosikili advised reporters on Tuesday that authorities expect protests in Johannesburg and different main South African cities.
“We’ll enable that proper (to protest) to be exercised,” she stated. “However inside the correct directives and correct confines of the regulation.”
Femicide protests
One of many largest demonstrations is deliberate by the Ladies for Change advocacy group, which is asking for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, the eve of the summit, to protest in opposition to South Africa’s hovering charges of violence in opposition to ladies and femicide. Three ladies are killed by intimate companions each day, based on authorities figures.
The organisation has led a big social media marketing campaign within the days main as much as the occasion to create consciousness. On Friday, it’s asking South African ladies to boycott work and college and to put on all black to suggest mourning. Ladies are additionally being urged to lie down for quarter-hour at 12:00 native time (10:00 GMT) in honour of the ladies murdered.
“As a result of, till South Africa stops burying a lady each 2.5 hours, the G20 can’t converse of progress and progress,” Ladies for Change stated in a marketing campaign assertion.
In an impassioned assertion throughout a sideline G20 occasion on Thursday night, President Ramaphosa tried to point out solidarity with ladies, declaring gender-based violence and femicide each a nationwide and world disaster. Ladies’s rights teams, nonetheless, say they’re pushing for femicide to be declared a nationwide catastrophe.
Local weather change protests
On Thursday, a coalition of local weather change and wealth inequality activists referred to as The Citizen started an alternate summit in Johannesburg, decrying the G20 gathering as “for the wealthy”.
White minority protests
Individually, Solidarity, a commerce union representing members of South Africa’s Afrikaner white minority, can also be set to protest in opposition to the alleged marginalisation of white South Africans. The organisation has put up controversial billboards round Johannesburg that say: “Welcome to probably the most RACE-REGULATED nation on the earth.”
Unemployment protests
In the meantime, Operation Dudula, a South African anti-immigration group, says it would protest in opposition to joblessness and poverty within the nation. South Africa’s 31 p.c unemployment price is without doubt one of the highest on the earth.
