The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has accused South Africa of “anti-Americanism” and refused to attend a G20 meeting in Johannesburg later this month, as diplomatic ties sour between the two countries under Donald Trump’s administration.
Rubio made the announcement on X, where he repeated the US president’s unfounded claim that South Africa was expropriating private property.
“South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change,” Rubio said in a post on X. “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire and Trump adviser tasked with scrutinising US government spending and staffing, including on foreign aid, replied with two American flag emojis.
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared to rebuke Trump and Rubio in his annual State of the Nation address on Thursday: “We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause … We will not be bullied.”
Rubio’s snub of South Africa, which this year is chairing the G20 forum of large economies, the EU and African Union, comes after Trump said on Sunday that South Africa was “confiscating land” and that he was stopping US funding pending an investigation.
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month signed a law allowing for land expropriation with no compensation in limited circumstances. Politicians have said it is similar to countries including the US, where expropriating land with “just compensation” is allowed for public projects such as road building.
More than three decades after apartheid ended, land ownership remains concentrated in South Africa’s white minority. The government has bought and redistributed 7.8m hectares (19m acres), while courts have ordered a limited number of returns of land to people displaced by apartheid.
“There is no arbitrary dispossession of land/private property,” South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, said on X. “Our G20 Presidency, is not confined to just climate change but also equitable treatment for nations of the Global South, ensuring equal global system for all. We remain committed to engaging the government of the USA.”
The US relationship with South Africa deteriorated under the previous US president, Joe Biden, when South Africa refused to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine war but continued to play an active part in the Brics bloc, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
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The US also said South Africa’s international court of justice case against US ally Israel, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, was “meritless”. The case is yet to be decided.
Musk, who like other former PayPal executives and wealthy Trump allies Peter Thiel and David Sacks spent at least part of their childhood in apartheid-ruled South Africa, has accused South Africa of having “openly racist laws”.
While Musk’s Starlink internet provider operates or is due to launch in 16 African countries, it is not available in South Africa, where foreign investors must cede 30% of equity to Black shareholders to get a telecoms licence.
