By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:President Donald Trump has said no United States officials will attend this year’s Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa, falsely citing the killing of white farmers, Aljazeera reported on Saturday.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said it was a “total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.

“Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote, reiterating claims that have been rejected by authorities in South Africa.

“No US Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly claimed that white South Africans are being persecuted in the Black-majority country, a claim rejected by South Africa’s Government and top Afrikaner officials.

“Trump had already said on Wednesday that he would not attend the Summit-which will see the heads of states from the world’s leading and emerging economies gather in Johannesburg on November 22 and 23-as he also called for South Africa to be thrown out of the G20.US Vice President JD Vance had been expected to attend the meeting in place of the president. But a person familiar with Vance’s plans told The Associated Press news agency that he will no longer travel to South Africa,” reads the Aljazeera report in part.

Tensions first arose between the US and South Africa after President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a new law in January seeking to address land ownership disparities, which have left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority more than three decades after the end of apartheid.