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The leader of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa officially closed the Group of Twenty meeting in Johannesburg by banging a ceremonial hammer, following his refusal of a American suggestion for him to hand over duties to a relatively junior embassy official for the next summit in Florida.

Event Overshadowed by US Boycott

South Africa presented the 48-hour conference as a triumph for multilateralism, but it was overshadowed by a withdrawal of the United States, which has repeatedly accused South Africa of showing bias toward white-minority Afrikaners—a claim that has been widely discredited.

“We’ve met in the face of significant challenges and shown our capacity to come together, even in periods of hardship, to strive for global improvement,” Ramaphosa stated in his final address.

Concluding his remarks, he announced: “This gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now proceeds to the subsequent leader of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year.” It represented Ramaphosa’s only mention of the nation absent from the gathering of the world’s largest economies.

G20 Declaration Highlights Global Warming and Equal Rights

The G20 issued a declaration on Saturday emphasizing the need to address environmental crises and achieve “gender equality.” The Trump government had pulled out of the Paris environmental accord on the initial day of his second term and has reversed many policies designed to tackle discrimination based on gender, race, and sexual orientation.

US Administration Reaction

US administration representative Anna Kelly accused Ramaphosa of “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency.”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 leaders’ declaration, notwithstanding repeated and robust US objections, highlights the reality that they have exploited their leadership role to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” she stated.

Transition Procedure Controversy

South Africa had offered to arrange for an equivalent “junior” diplomat to formally hand the G20 presidency to the US at the foreign ministry. Officials had stated it would breach protocol for Ramaphosa to pass it to the US acting ambassador.

South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, informed the press: “We have done our part. We are done. It’s up to them. Should they choose to engage, we are ready.”

Upcoming Gathering and Other Notable Non-Attendances

The 2026 summit is scheduled to take place at the Trump-owned Doral Miami golf resort, which is under Trump corporate ownership.

The nation of Argentina, led by President Javier Milei skipped the summit, also declined to support the communique. Its diplomatic chief, Pablo Quirno, said: “In particular, it deals with the longstanding Middle East conflict in a manner that fails to capture its entire intricacy.”

The G20 document read: “We will work for a fair, inclusive, and enduring resolution in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Palestinian territories, Ukraine, as well as ending other conflicts and wars around the globe.”

Group of Twenty History

The G20 was founded in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in 1999, with 19 countries plus the EU. The African Union was incorporated last year.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum were also not present at the meeting. Putin is wanted by the international criminal court, to which South Africa is a signatory. The Chinese president has assigned attending many international gatherings this year to China’s prime minister, Li Qiang.