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Trump announced last week on social media that no U.S. government official would attend the Nov. 22-23 meeting of leaders from 19 of the world's richest and leading developing economies in Johannesburg, citing his that members of a white minority group in South Africa are being violently persecuted and having their land taken from them because of their race.

The U.S. president has for months targeted South Africa’s Black-led government for criticism over that and , including its decision to accuse U.S. ally Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in an ongoing and highly contentious case at the United Nations’ top court.

“It is unfortunate that the United States decided not to attend the G20,� Ramaphosa told reporters outside the South African Parliament. “The United States by not being at the G20, one must never think that we are not going to go on with the G20. The G20 will go on, all other heads of state will be here. In the end we will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss.�

Ramaphosa added that the U.S. is “giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world.�

with his baseless claims that the in South Africa were being killed in widespread attacks when the leaders met at the White House in May. At that meeting, Ramaphosa lobbied for Trump to attend this month's G20 summit, the first to be held in Africa.

was formed in 1999 to bring rich and developing countries together to address issues affecting the global economy and international development. The U.S., China, Russia, India, Japan, France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Union are all members. The U.S. is due to take over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa at the end of the year.

Trump said on Truth Social last week that it was “a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa� and claimed Afrikaners "are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.�

Trump had already said he would not attend the summit, but Vice President JD Vance was expected to represent the U.S.

Trump’s claims about anti-white violence and persecution in South Africa have reflected those in the U.S. as far back as 2018.

Trump and others, including , have also accused South Africa's government of being racist against whites because of its affirmative action laws that aim to advance opportunities for the Black majority who were oppressed under the former apartheid system of racial segregation.

Ramaphosa's government has said the comments are the result of misinformation and a lack of understanding of South Africa.

Relations between the U.S. and its biggest trading partner in Africa are at their lowest since the end of apartheid in 1994, and to the U.S. in March over comments he made regarding Trump.

The Trump administration has criticized South Africa's hosting of the G20 from the outset, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in South Africa in February while calling the host's policies "anti-Americanism" and deriding its focus on issues like climate change and global inequality.

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AP Africa news: