Africa-Press – South-Africa. The world and Group of 20 nations will move on with or without the US, South Africa’s foreign minister said, while pushing back against what he described as Washington’s White supremacist agenda.
The US administration is “not listening because of its ideological bias,” Ronald Lamola told the inaugural Bloomberg Africa Business Summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday, held days ahead of a gathering of G-20 leaders in the city. That’s because of its views that “feed the agenda of White supremacy.”
President Donald Trump ordered a US boycott of this weekend’s G-20 summit, the first of its kind to be held on the African continent, maintaining his false narrative that White Afrikaner farmers are being subjected to a genocide in South Africa.
His administration has offered refugee status to Afrikaners and imposed 30% tariffs on some imports from Africa’s largest economy.
“It’s a race-based policy executive order,” because Afrikaners aren’t being persecuted and don’t qualify for refugee status under the Geneva Convention, Lamola said. “It’s a clear agenda to pursue fear mongering.”
South Africa suffers from high levels of violent crime, with more than 27,000 people murdered annually, but a disproportionate number of the victims are young men in predominantly Black townships.
A White House spokeswoman said that the president would continue to raise the issue.
“There is extensive evidence of the persecution of Afrikaners — most importantly the testimonials of individuals who have been discriminated against themselves,” said Anna Kelly. “Minister Lamola should listen to their harrowing stories of discrimination and persecution.”
American officials also stayed away from several preparatory meetings for the G-20 summit, frustrating attempts by the bloc’s other members to forge consensus on a range of issues and draft joint communiques.
“The G-20 should send a clear message that the world can move on with or without the US,” Lamola said. “We will mark them absent and continue with the business” of the summit, he said, while conceding that implementing its resolutions won’t be easy.
China’s Xi Jinping also won’t be attending the leaders’ gathering, a further setback to South Africa’s bid to set the G-20’s agenda and persuade it to do more to tackle global inequality, climate change and ballooning African debt.
Still, Lamola said his nation was “not disappointed” Xi wouldn’t attend, noting the Chinese leader’s scaled down international travel and the fact Premier Li Qiang will be present instead.
“It has never even happened in the G-20 itself that you will find 100% attendance of heads of state” he said. “China, at all the multilateral platforms, has been represented by Premier Li,” he added, citing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attendance of last month’s ASEAN summit in Malaysia alongside China’s No. 2.
Formed in the wake of the global financial crisis to bring together the world’s biggest advanced and emerging economies, the G-20 once served as a key forum for setting and promoting global financial norms.
Its cohesion has eroded in recent years, but the gatherings have continued to offer a venue for regular engagement among leaders of the world’s largest economies.
Lamola envisions G-20 leaders agreeing on new measures to reform the global financial architecture and adopting a new framework on critical minerals.
He noted that South Africa had “turned the corner,” as evidenced by its recent credit-ratings upgrade from S&P Global Ratings, its removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s dirty money watchlist and a cessation in power cuts.
Trade talks aimed at persuading the US to reduce its tariffs on goods from South Africa were ongoing and it was unclear when they would be concluded, he added.
Source: dailyinvestor
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