Lamola justifies his decision to decline the G20 transfer to the US Charge d’Affairs in light of Trump’s lack of attendance.
Tasha Siziba
South Africa is preparing to hand over the G20 presidency to the United States early next week, but the transfer will only take place once the two countries align on the appropriate diplomatic level, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said on Saturday.
Speaking at the start of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg—the first time the gathering has been hosted on African soil—Lamola stressed that Pretoria would not deviate from established protocol. The U.S. has indicated it is ready to assume the presidency, but its delegation is led only by a chargé d’affaires following President Donald Trump’s absence from the summit.
Lamola said South Africa had communicated that it was willing to proceed with the handover but only through officials holding equivalent authority. Dirco has designated its own representative of similar rank, and the actual transfer is expected to occur at the department’s headquarters once both sides settle on a date, starting as soon as Monday.
His comments came shortly after more than 40 attending leaders endorsed the summit’s declaration, finalised ahead of schedule following intensive negotiations. Argentina withheld its endorsement, with President Javier Milei skipping the meeting and sending his foreign minister instead.
The U.S. delegation’s composition has become a subtext of diplomatic tension throughout the summit. Analysts note that Trump’s decision not to attend has complicated an otherwise routine ceremonial transition, prompting South Africa to navigate the handover delicately to avoid breaching protocol while also maintaining constructive bilateral relations.
Lamola also used the briefing to highlight a separate development: South Africa’s new agreement with the European Union on critical minerals. The deal emphasises domestic beneficiation—a longstanding priority for Pretoria—and aims to ensure that minerals central to global clean-energy supply chains are processed locally rather than exported in raw form.
He argued that the broader G20 declaration reinforces this continental ambition by encouraging value addition within Africa and supporting frameworks that enable mineral-rich countries to expand industrial capacity. Combined with the recently concluded Compact with Africa, Lamola said the commitments signal a shift toward more assertive economic positioning by African states within global markets.
In both diplomacy and resource governance, the minister framed South Africa’s approach as one that seeks to balance respect for international partners with a firm assertion of national and continental priorities.