BY ALAN GREEN

Donald Trump’s boycott of the G20 Summit held earlier this week in South Africa is history. But the story did not end there. At the conclusion of the mega-event held for the first time in Africa, President Ramaphosa reacted both in words and in deeds to Trump’s vicious act.

In-keeping with the age-old protocol followed at the conclusion of recurring meetings of world leaders, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, on November 23, 2025 officially closed the G20 summit by banging a gavel on a block. According to the protocol, the gavel was supposed to be handed over to the leader of the next country to hold the rotating presidency. With the absence of Donald Trump who assumes the G20 presidency for the next year, the United States sent a junior staff member of its embassy in South Africa to pick up the gavel. But the South African government refused to be further insulted by the erratic president of the United States, asking instead, that the embassy’s envoy—who only showed up for the conclusion ceremony, pick up the gavel at the foreign ministry. In a lengthy post on X, Ramaphosa wrote, “As the United States was not present at the summit, instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handed over to a US Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.”

The move reignited the same racist ticks that caused Trump to boycott the meeting in the first place under the disguise of unfounded accusation of human rights violation in South Africa.

Noting in a post that, “At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our U.S. Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony,” Trump added: “Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year. South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”

Living up to the polished manners in which he reacted to previous provocations by Trump, Ramaphosa avoided calling Trump who he really is—a hardcore racist, especially when it comes to Black people. The South Africa leader however stated: “South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country and does not appreciate insults from another country about its membership and worth in participating in global platforms.” He reaffirmed that South Africa would “never insult or demean another country or its standing and worthiness in the community of nations.”

The 20th G20 summit hosted by South Africa was attended by the leading world economies, including China, Japan, Australia, France, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, and developing countries. The declaration adopted at the conclusion of the meeting speak to the significance of the work done.