Minister of international relations and cooperation Ronald Lamola has confirmed that South Africa plans to hand the presidency of the G20 over to the US in the coming days, after the worlds largest economy failed to pitch for the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg.
This comes after US President Donald Trump said he would not attend the summit and would send neither Vice-President JD Vance nor secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Briefing reporters on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday afternoon, Lamola said: We have communicated to the US embassy that South Africa welcomes the fact that the US now wants to hand over to the US the leadership of the G20. And they have communicated this very late. They stated that it will be the charg daffaires of the US mission here in South Africa who will receive it.