South Africa Won't Hand Over G20 Chair To US As Washington Skips Summit

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Bernama-dpa) -- South Africa will not symbolically pass the rotating G20 presidency to the United States on Sunday, the spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa said during the G20 summit here, reported German news agency dpa.

Under normal protocol, the outgoing host formally hands over the chair at the end of the summit to the next presidency holder — in this case, the United States. But Washington is boycotting the first G20 summit ever held on African soil.

US President Donald Trump has accused South Africa of discriminating against white minorities, particularly Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers. South Africa rejects the allegations as unfounded, and rights experts have also dismissed them as unjustified.

Because of the boycott, the United States is not taking part in any of the summit discussions. 

According to presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya, the US had planned to send a embassy representative to the summit just for Sunday’s handover ceremony. That, he said, was unacceptable to South Africa.          

“It's a breach of protocol. It has never happened before and it was never going to happen for the first time here in South Africa," Magwenya said on Saturday.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola sad later on Saturday that the handover will take place next next week in the capital, Pretoria, with the head of the US embassy participating. 

South Africa is hosting the two-day meeting in the commercial hub of Johannesburg. The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and African Union. Next year’s summit is scheduled to take place in Miami.

--BERNAMA-dpa