US's Marco Rubio to skip G20 meeting in Trump row over South Africa land policy

Secretary of State accuses Pretoria of ‘expropriating private property’

Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, says he will not attend the forthcoming G20 meeting in Johannesburg, claiming 'South Africa is doing very bad things'. AP

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he will not attend a G20 meeting in South Africa this month, after President Donald Trump threatened to cut funding to the country in a row over land policy.

Mr Trump accused South Africa of confiscating land and said "certain classes of people" were being mistreated. He did not cite evidence but said he would slash funding until the matter was investigated.

After the threat, President Cyril Ramaphosa defended South Africa's policy, saying the government had not confiscated any land and the measure was aimed at ensuring equitable public access.

South Africa will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the G20 group of nations on February 20 and 21 in Johannesburg.

Mr Rubio said in a post on X that he would not attend, claiming "South Africa is doing very bad things".

"Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability. In other words: DEI and climate change," he wrote. "My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism."

The Trump administration has attempted to dismantle so-called DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes across the US government. Rights groups say DEI schemes help deal with inequities faced by marginalised groups but Mr Trump calls them discriminatory and "anti-merit".

South Africans perform a traditional dance in the town of Sanddrift, where residents successfully reclaimed their ancestral land from a state-owned mining company. AFP

Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire who is close to Mr Trump, has also accused South Africa, without evidence, of having "openly racist ownership laws", suggesting white people were the victims.

The question of land ownership is politically charged in South Africa due to the legacy of the colonial and apartheid eras, when black people were dispossessed of their lands and denied property rights.

According to the latest land audit from 2017, white landowners still possess three quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, despite comprising less than 8 per cent of the population. This contrasts with 4 per cent owned by black people, who make up 80 per cent of the population.

Partly in an effort to redress this imbalance, Mr Ramaphosa signed a law last month allowing the state to expropriate land "in the public interest". But authorities have not yet taken control of any land under the legislation.

South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has opposed the law, saying it undermines property rights and could deter foreign investors. However, it has also expressed concern about Mr Trump’s threat to cut aid.

Mr Ramaphosa said the government looked forward to engaging with Mr Trump to foster a better understanding of the land policy. His African National Congress, the biggest party in the country's coalition government, accused Mr Trump of amplifying misinformation propagated by AfriForum, a right-wing lobby group that promotes what it sees as the interests of white Afrikaner South Africans.

Critics of the Trump administration responded negatively to Mr Rubio's statement that he would skip the G20.

“This show of weakness hurts our national security and economy while benefiting China,” Andrew Bates, a former White House senior deputy press secretary under previous president Joe Biden, wrote on X.

The US is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner, according to data from the World Bank, meaning the row could have significant economic impacts. Washington committed $440 million in aid to South Africa in 2023, of which $315 million was for HIV-Aids programmes.

Ties between Washington and Pretoria are already strained over South Africa's warm relations with China and Russia, and its legal action against Israel, a staunch US ally, which Pretoria accuses of genocide in Gaza.

South Africa holds the G20 presidency until November.