By Marcus Moloko
President Cyril Ramaphosa has downplayed South Africa’s disinvitation from the upcoming G7 summit in Evian, France, insisting that the move does not amount to a diplomatic snub.
Ramaphosa, who was on a guided tour of the Dark and Silver City units in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.
“My information is that there’s been no pressure from any country, uh, the United States or any other country,” Ramaphosa said.
France had initially extended an invitation to South Africa for the June gathering of the world’s leading economies, but later rescinded it.
Ramaphosa stressed that attendance at the G7 is not guaranteed and should not be interpreted as a measure of global standing.
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“The invitation to the G7 does not mean that you are being snubbed if you are not invited or you being ignored. And there are so many countries around the world that don’t get invited to the G7. And we are not a member, and the members of Africa are not members. And when we do go, we are invited, and we take a message there,” he explained.
The disinvitation comes against the backdrop of strained relations between Pretoria and Washington.
Tensions escalated in November last year when U.S. President Donald Trump announced that South Africa would be barred from attending the 2026 G20 summit in Miami and that all financial support to the country would be halted.
Trump’s remarks followed South Africa’s refusal to symbolically pass the G20 presidency to a senior U.S. Embassy representative at the close of the Johannesburg summit.
In a statement at the time, Trump accused Pretoria of ignoring human rights concerns:
“The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa because the South African government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific human rights abuses endured by Afrikaners and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers,” he said.
