South Africa wraps up G20 summit boycotted by US

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and French President Emmanuel Macron at G20 summit

(Image credit: Per-Anders Pettersson / Getty Images)

What happened

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday closed out the G20 summit in Johannesburg, the first held in Africa, by ceremoniously banging a wooden gavel. But in a break with tradition, he did not hand the gavel to the U.S., which is hosting next year’s summit, because President Donald Trump boycotted the gathering over his baseless claim that South Africa is persecuting its white Afrikaner minority.

Who said what

With Trump spurning the summit, some countries took a “tougher tone” and tried to “show that life can go on” without the world’s largest economy, The New York Times said. Oxfam’s Nabil Ahmed told the Times the “big message coming out of this G20 is that despite the geopolitical bullying that exists, despite the power of the U.S., that countries can come together and still get stuff done.”

The White House “told the South Africans that they should not issue a joint declaration at the summit’s close,” NPR said. But in an “unprecedented” move, Ramaphosa issued a consensus declaration at the summit’s start, containing references to the “kind of DEI language disliked by the Trump administration,” with a focus on “gender inequality,” climate change and easing the debt burden faced by poorer countries.

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What next?

South Africa rejected a last-minute U.S. request for an American embassy official to come receive the gavel from Ramaphosa, saying the U.S. could go to the foreign ministry this week to pick it up from an official of similar rank. Trump “has said the U.S. will hold next year’s summit at his golf club in Doral, Florida,” The Associated Press said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.