WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is barring South Africa from participating in the Group of 20 summit next year at his Miami-area club and will stop all payments and subsidies to the country over its treatment of a US government representative at this year’s global meeting.
Trump chose not to have an American delegation attend the recent summit hosted by South Africa, saying he did so because white Afrikaners were being violently persecuted. It is a claim that South Africa, which was mired for decades in racial apartheid, has rejected as baseless.
The Republican president, in a social media post, said South Africa had refused to hand over its G20 hosting responsibilities to a senior representative of the US Embassy when the summit ended over the weekend.
“Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere,” he said, “and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”
In some ways, Trump views next year’s G20 summit as personal, given that he announced it will be at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
This year’s summit in Johannesburg, the first held in Africa, was boycotted by the United States, a G20 founding member and the world’s biggest economy. The meeting’s declaration, giving more attention to issues that affect developing countries, went unsigned by Washington, and the Trump administration expressed its opposition to South Africa’s agenda, especially the parts that focus on climate change.
On Monday, the US took over the rotating presidency of the G20, leaving the long-term impact of the South African declaration unclear.
By tradition, the host country hands over a symbolic wooden gavel to the nation taking over the G20 presidency. But there was no American official on hand to receive it from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa because of the boycott.
The US wanted to send a representative from its embassy. South Africa refused, saying it was an insult for Ramaphosa to hand over to what it called a junior official.
Trump has claimed that white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa are being killed and that their land is being seized. The South African government and others, including some Afrikaners themselves, say Trump’s claims are the result of misinformation.
South Africa has been a target for Trump since he returned to office at the start of the year, with his administration casting the country as anti-American because of its diplomatic ties with China, Russia and Iran.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would restrict the number of refugees admitted annually to the US to 7,500, with most of the spots reserved for white South Africans. Trump had suspended the refugee program on his first day in office in January. Since then only a trickle have entered the country, mostly white South Africans. In May, the administration welcomed a group of 59 white South Africans as refugees.
Afrikaners are South Africans who are descended mainly from Dutch but also French and German colonial settlers who first came to the country in the 17th century.
Afrikaners were at the heart of the apartheid system of white minority rule from 1948-1994, leading to decades of hostility between them and South Africa’s Black majority. But Afrikaners are not a homogenous group, and some fought against apartheid. There are an estimated 2.7 million Afrikaners in South Africa’s population of 62 million.
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Trump says he’s barring South Africa from participating in next year’s G20 summit near Miami
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Trump says he’s barring South Africa from participating in next year’s G20 summit near Miami
- This year’s summit in Johannesburg, the first held in Africa, was boycotted by the United States, a G20 founding member and the world’s biggest economy
Tanzania tourism suffers after election killings
- Tanzania’s white beaches and safari lodges are emptier than usual as the country counts the cost to its crucial tourism sector from the mass killing of protesters during recent election unrest
NAIROBI: Tanzania’s white beaches and safari lodges are emptier than usual as the country counts the cost to its crucial tourism sector from the mass killing of protesters during recent election unrest.
The election on October 29 erupted into days of violent protests over allegations that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had rigged the vote.
Police responded by shooting dead more than 1,000 people, according to the opposition, though the government has still not given a final body count.
With fresh protests called for December 9, there are fears of more disruption to come.
“The current situation is very disturbing,” said a hotel manager in Arusha, one of the cities serving as a gateway to the Serengeti safari park.
“In my hotel, 150 bookings and four international events that were planned for December have been canceled so far,” the manager said, adding the hotel was below 30 percent full, compared to two-thirds or higher for that period normally.
The government has insisted there is nothing for tourists to fear.
“Our nation remains peaceful, calm, and open to all,” spokesman Gerson Msigwa told reporters.
Beyond the Internet blackout and canceled flights at the height of the unrest, tourists have indeed been largely unaffected.
“I don’t think it’s having a real impact on us foreigners,” said French tourist Jeremy Fuzel, shopping for handicrafts with his wife and young daughter on the island of Zanzibar.
But business has been noticeably slow, said shopkeepers in the island’s capital, Stone Town.
“Sometimes there are a few slow days, but not two weeks in a row like this,” said Nazir Adam, a jeweller. “It’s the topic everyone is talking about here right now.”
- ‘Fear to speak’ -
That is a problem in the east African country where tourism has become the biggest revenue source, attracting a record 2.14 million international visitors last year and projected to make nearly $4 billion this year.
“Many people may fear to speak about the real situation but almost half of the tourism business is disrupted,” said a tour operator in Arusha, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of violent reprisals by the police.
Activists say tourists should stay away to punish the government for its violence.
“If you go snorkelling or swimming you might find body parts as we received solid information that bodies were dumped into the Indian Ocean,” said exiled activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai on X.
But others say tourism’s real problems stem from recent counter-productive government policies.
Nora Suleiman, founder of the Nakupenda Tours agency on Zanzibar, blamed a new $44 insurance fee and $90 passenger tax on plane tickets for putting off tourists.
Patrice Caradec, head of French tour operators union SETO, said the biggest problem was a ban on Tanzanian airlines flying in the European Union this year over a lack of safety personnel.
“Tanzania has been a hit with the French for several years,” but it dropped by 15-18 percent this summer, he said, largely because of the airline ban.
- ‘Rebuilding confidence’ -
The most frustrating aspect, Caradec said, was that SETO sent a team to help Tanzania deal with the paperwork to get the ban removed, but it was ignored by the Tanzanian government.
“Between the blacklisted airlines... and the riots, I can confirm that quite a few of our compatriots have decided not to go,” he said.
Mabrian, a consultancy using artificial intelligence to measure global sentiment about countries and industries, made a more direct link to the election unrest.
It found there was a 14 percent drop in its perception-of-security index for Tanzania in November among international travelers year-on-year. Hotel prices were also down 14 percent.
“Even once the political situation stabilizes, rebuilding confidence in travelers’ safety and security will remain a crucial and urgent challenge for Tanzania,” said Mabrian analyst Carlos Cendra.
The election on October 29 erupted into days of violent protests over allegations that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had rigged the vote.
Police responded by shooting dead more than 1,000 people, according to the opposition, though the government has still not given a final body count.
With fresh protests called for December 9, there are fears of more disruption to come.
“The current situation is very disturbing,” said a hotel manager in Arusha, one of the cities serving as a gateway to the Serengeti safari park.
“In my hotel, 150 bookings and four international events that were planned for December have been canceled so far,” the manager said, adding the hotel was below 30 percent full, compared to two-thirds or higher for that period normally.
The government has insisted there is nothing for tourists to fear.
“Our nation remains peaceful, calm, and open to all,” spokesman Gerson Msigwa told reporters.
Beyond the Internet blackout and canceled flights at the height of the unrest, tourists have indeed been largely unaffected.
“I don’t think it’s having a real impact on us foreigners,” said French tourist Jeremy Fuzel, shopping for handicrafts with his wife and young daughter on the island of Zanzibar.
But business has been noticeably slow, said shopkeepers in the island’s capital, Stone Town.
“Sometimes there are a few slow days, but not two weeks in a row like this,” said Nazir Adam, a jeweller. “It’s the topic everyone is talking about here right now.”
- ‘Fear to speak’ -
That is a problem in the east African country where tourism has become the biggest revenue source, attracting a record 2.14 million international visitors last year and projected to make nearly $4 billion this year.
“Many people may fear to speak about the real situation but almost half of the tourism business is disrupted,” said a tour operator in Arusha, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of violent reprisals by the police.
Activists say tourists should stay away to punish the government for its violence.
“If you go snorkelling or swimming you might find body parts as we received solid information that bodies were dumped into the Indian Ocean,” said exiled activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai on X.
But others say tourism’s real problems stem from recent counter-productive government policies.
Nora Suleiman, founder of the Nakupenda Tours agency on Zanzibar, blamed a new $44 insurance fee and $90 passenger tax on plane tickets for putting off tourists.
Patrice Caradec, head of French tour operators union SETO, said the biggest problem was a ban on Tanzanian airlines flying in the European Union this year over a lack of safety personnel.
“Tanzania has been a hit with the French for several years,” but it dropped by 15-18 percent this summer, he said, largely because of the airline ban.
- ‘Rebuilding confidence’ -
The most frustrating aspect, Caradec said, was that SETO sent a team to help Tanzania deal with the paperwork to get the ban removed, but it was ignored by the Tanzanian government.
“Between the blacklisted airlines... and the riots, I can confirm that quite a few of our compatriots have decided not to go,” he said.
Mabrian, a consultancy using artificial intelligence to measure global sentiment about countries and industries, made a more direct link to the election unrest.
It found there was a 14 percent drop in its perception-of-security index for Tanzania in November among international travelers year-on-year. Hotel prices were also down 14 percent.
“Even once the political situation stabilizes, rebuilding confidence in travelers’ safety and security will remain a crucial and urgent challenge for Tanzania,” said Mabrian analyst Carlos Cendra.
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