JOHANNESBURG: Tensions between the White House and South Africa have flared as the G-20 Leaders’ Summit unfolds in Johannesburg this weekend. Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, has criticized South African President Cyril Ramaphosa following his decision to exclude a U.S. embassy delegation from participating in the summit’s closing ceremony.

As the United States is set to assume the G-20 presidency next year, the diplomatic spat has intensified. A representative for Ramaphosa stated that the president would not conduct the ceremonial handover to a subordinate diplomat, despite Washington’s request to have the embassy’s chargé d’affaires present at the event.

This decision has fueled a growing exchange of sharp remarks between Pretoria and Washington over various G-20-related matters. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Kelly remarked, “President Ramaphosa initially suggested he would pass the gavel to an ’empty chair.’ Now, he’s obstructing a seamless transfer of the G-20 presidency altogether.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at the G-20 leaders’ summit’s opening session in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday, November 22, 2025. (Misper Apawu/AP Photo/Pool)

Kelly further expressed concerns, saying, “South Africa’s insistence on pushing a G-20 Leaders Declaration, despite firm U.S. resistance, highlights their use of the G-20 presidency to compromise the organization’s core values. President Trump is eager to reinstate the G-20’s credibility during the U.S.’s hosting year in 2026.”

Trump withdrew all U.S. participation in the summit over his claims that some White South Africans were being racially discriminated against.  

Now South Africa’s chief rabbi, Dr. Warren Goldstein, has also lashed out at the G-20, speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital, saying, “How can it be that in the long wish list of items that make up the G-20 Leaders Declaration, there wasn’t space to condemn one of the greatest human rights crises in Africa – the continent wide jihadi war on Christians?”

He continued “How can it be that the first G-20 hosted in Africa by an African government ignores how Africa – from Mozambique to Mali, the DRC, Nigeria, Sudan and so many other countries – has become the central front of Islamist terrorism?

Members of St. Leo Catholic Church hold a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, on April 13, 2025. (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)

“Just Friday, more than 300 girls and 12 teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic school in Nigeria,” he added. “Who will speak up for these children and save them? The silence of the G-20 declaration on this and other jihadi atrocities on the continent is a moral disgrace, revealing the gathering to be a heartless charade that history will judge harshly. God’s condemnation of Cain following his feeble defense of ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ stands as an eternal accusation against the leaders of the G-20 – ‘What have you done? The blood of your brother calls out to Me from the ground.’”

Forty-two world leaders and major institutions such as the U.N. are represented at the summit. Only one of them, Italy’s President Giorgia Meloni, has addressed the issue of Christian persecution in the last few days – and she did that Friday, before the summit started. Posting on X, she wrote, “We ask the Nigerian government to strengthen the protection of Christian communities and all religious communities and to pursue those responsible for these heinous attacks.”

The White House could question the validity of the Leaders’ Declaration produced at the G-20. Ramaphosa conceivably didn’t realize his microphone was open right at the beginning of proceedings Saturday. Journalists in the media center next door to the main summit hall could hear him telling leaders that the final 122-point resolution was ready for them to endorse – before they had discussed it.

The U.S. flag at the G-20 media center in South Africa on Nov. 22, 2025. (Paul Tilsley for Fox News Digital)

As it stands, South Africa has officially marked the U.S. as “absent” from this G-20 summit. The only U.S. presence here this weekend was the American flag in the media center.

The final G-20 South Africa Summit Leaders’ Declaration was released on Sunday with the only reference to religion, noting, “We condemn all attacks against civilians and infrastructure. We further reaffirm that in line with the U.N. Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state and that states should develop friendly relations among nations, including by promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government but did not receive a response.