French President Emmanuel Macron’s Africa adviser, Jérémie Robert, says he has seen no evidence to support US President Donald Trump’s allegations of a genocide against white South Africans.
This is the first time a high-ranking leader closely linked to one of the G7 heads of state has spoken openly against Trump’s false statements about South Africa.
Robert said on Monday that France was standing in solidarity with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Camille Morfouace, global affairs adviser to Macron, said they found the US’s decision to snub the G20 unusual.
“We need to work as much as we can to still get an admission discussion. The good thing is that the sherpas have been negotiating throughout the year, and the US did participate in the initial meetings … For the rest, we do hope that this week will lead to a strong discussion.
“South Africa has been getting some good responses in the ministerial tracks ... and we will be as supportive as we can to get the best resolution,” Morfouace said, adding that climate change was considered one of the important agendas by the French.
When asked by the Sunday Times whether the French government believed there was a genocide in South Africa, Robert said: “No, absolutely not. It’s not our position, and it’s not our assessment. This is a different terminology.”
He said after Ramaphosa met with Trump at the Oval Office, the French “felt solidarity with Ramaphosa and the people of South Africa”.
We are moving towards deciding the terms of the leaders’ declaration. Negotiations are happening, and in the later stage, in the course of the week, you will hear the outcome.
— Ronald Lamola, international relations minister
They said given that the US chose not to participate, Paris has no objection to working with members who come to the negotiations for a declaration.
This comes after Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he would not be sending a government delegation to South Africa.
Trump has been peddling misinformation against Pretoria, making false claims of a white genocide.
Trump posted that it was “a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.
“Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue,” Trump said.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio echoed the sentiment on X, claiming: “Afrikaners have been continuously subjected to violent racial discrimination by the South African government. I applaud [Donald Trump’s] decision to not waste taxpayer dollars sending our diplomats to the G20 while this heinous violence continues.”
The Sunday Times understands that news of the US delegation’s and Argentinian president Javier Milei’s non-attendance took Pretoria by surprise. Mexico and Russia’s heads of state had, however, registered their non-attendance.
The South African government was said to have been in contact with US vice-president JD Vance coordinating their travel and participation in the summit as part of the G20 Troika, which includes Brazil. The US will take over from South Africa in chairing the G20 summit next year.
Vance was initially announced by Trump as his replacement to lead the country’s delegation.
Pretoria has been racing against time to salvage the summit following Trump’s announcement.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana and minister of international relations Ronald Lamola held a media briefing on Monday, where they criticised the US, arguing that it would not deter the G20 agenda.
The two ministers insisted the US could not wish South Africa away, claiming that the only way Washington would bar them from attending the G20 next year would be by denying them visas.
“The sherpas are negotiating the leaders’ declaration. We are moving towards deciding the terms of the leaders’ declaration. Negotiations are happening, and in the later stage, in the course of the week, you will hear the outcome.
“But we are forging ahead to pursue with the countries that are present that we must adopt the leaders’ declaration, because the institution cannot be brought down by anyone. Because if I am absent for whatever reason, if I don’t agree with the agenda and so forth, I must come to the platform and raise my issues with the agenda,” Lamola said.
Pretoria has put its foot down, claiming that it will not travel to the US to hand over the presidency.
Lamola said that should the US fail to show up for the handover, “we will just issue the declaration and the US will decide how they want to continue in the next year”.
He said other G20 member countries understood the need for development in Africa, adding that their agenda has already been taken to the United Nations.
While South Africa seemed to be putting on a brave face against the US, the two ministers were less than confident that a declaration would be agreed by the heads of state.
Godongwana explained that two forms of documents could emerge from the meeting, a declaration or a chairperson’s statement.
He said the chairperson’s statement did not mean that the South African agenda had failed, arguing that the same process was achieved by other countries during their presidency.
“We may take a soft approach and say, OK, the other colleagues feel differently, chairpersons send us a statement. It’s got the same effect as a declaration, because the only thing is that nobody can contest you much on your content, because the content comes from you as a host country. In that sense, there will be a declaration or a chair’s statement one way or another out of the meeting,” he said.
“The G20 consists of member countries and invited countries. Fortunately for us, we belong to the category of member states, so we don’t need an invitation from anybody. If the US do not want us to participate, the only way they can do it is to decline us a visa,” Godongwana said.
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