South Africa's G20 presidency was meant to be an opportunity to get rich, powerful nations to pay attention to poorer countries' concerns such as burgeoning inequality, crippling sovereign debt and a lack of progress in the fight against climate change.

South Africa appears to be at a crossroads in its waxing and waning relationship with the US following President Donald Trump's controversial decision last week to cut financial aid to the country.Trump said South Africa was pursuing what he called "unjust and immoral practices" against the white minority Afrikaner community and by filing a genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023.

President Trump has ordered a freeze on all foreign aid to South Africa in an executive order he signed Friday, claiming that a new land reform law amounts to “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.

South Africa exports vehicles worth about $1.9 billion every year, many to the United States under a trade deal now in jeopardy as President Donald Trump piles pressure on the country.

Trump and his allies have targeted South Africa, promoting the false narrative that white people are being mistreated by the nation’s post-apartheid government.

U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on what he alleges is South Africa's mistreatment of its white minority are being met with mockery on social media by some white South Africans poking fun at their own privilege.

Though the name of Donald Trump went unmentioned, everyone knew who Ramaphosa was talking about. A few days earlier, the US president had written on his Truth Social platform that South Africa was “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY”.