Trump’s G-20 boycott casts long negative shadow

The world's champion chaser of headlines Donald Trump lost personal credibility when he boycotted the G-20 summit attended by 42 countries and institutions in South Africa on the weekend. A founding member of the group, the US is set to take over the rotating presidency from South Africa and sent an official to confirm the take over but did not take part in discussions.

Trump wrongly claimed justification by saying that white farmers in that country were suffering discrimination and genocide. Trump made has this claim and repeated it without investigating the actual situation.

He initially made the false claim in June and granted asylum to nearly 60 Afrikaners. This minority community is made up of descendants of white Europeans — Dutch, French, and Germans — who colonised the southern regions of the country in the mid-17th century and melded into a "unique cultural group" which identified with African soil," assumed control, imposed apartheid, and created the Africans language.

Currently 72 per cent of farms and agricultural lands in the country are owned by whites, who constitute 7.3 per cent of the population; black South Africans, 81.4 per cent, own only 4 per cent of the land. Most of the country's land can be used for only dry farming. A large percentage of white-owned land is unproductive and fallow.

Agriculture now contributes 2.62 per cent to South Africa’s GDP. This is less than one-third of the figure during apartheid when the white Afrikaner state subsidised farming. Apartheid ended in 1994 when black people voted for the first time in a nationwide election and Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) took power. Despite liberation, the apartheid-era of structural inequality continued, compelling South Africa to adopt agricultural reforms which have created uncertainty among white farmers and failed to redress the dispossession of black farmers under apartheid.

Trump has accused South Africa of discrimination against whites to provide camouflage for his main complaint against Pretoria: its refusal to follow his lead in foreign policy, notably on Israel and Palestine. As South Africa's external policy has been based on human rights advocacy, multilateralism, anti-imperialism, and solidarity with the Global South, Pretoria has consistently backed the Palestinian cause and has been a critic of Israel. The current government has condemned Israeli actions in Gaza and in 2023 submitted a case accusing Israel of genocide to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This case has been joined by 27 other countries, including Ireland and Spain in Europe, and the Arab League, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement. The ICJ has intervened twice in Israel's Gaza campaign by calling for restraint until the court issues its ruling.

Established in 1999 as an informal economic grouping of the world’s 20 largest economic powers, the G-20 played a major role in stabilising the global economy during the 2008 crisis. This could no longer be handled by the G-7, the grouping of the world's most advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States. Six are Western countries while Japan is the sole Asian member and there are none from Africa.

As rapidly growing India and China were excluded, a new more inclusive grouping was required. G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Britain, the United States, the African Union and the European Union. Trump's boycott will be negatively remembered, particularly because his pretext was both flimsy and racist as well as insulting to South Africa.

Since it was the first African country to host this event, South Africa had planned the gathering would address issues facing developing nations. Pretoria argued that borrowing should be made cheaper as developing countries are charged two to four times more in interest than developed economies. Pretoria also seeks financing for tackling climate change, boosting participation of African countries in multilateral forums, and ensuring that they receive correct payment for exported critical minerals. These issues are not tackled with enthusiasm by Western countries, especially the US, which benefit from the unequal situation.