'It's shameful': Mbalula slams US secretary of state Rubio over G20 snub

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has criticised US secretary of state Marco Rubio after the American diplomat announced he would not attend the G20 summit in South Africa.

Rubio announced this decision on X early this week, citing South Africa's Expropriation Act. He claimed South Africa was doing “very bad things” by “expropriating private property”.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on the sidelines of the state of the nation address on Thursday, Mbalula said it was “shameful” for the US to address the issue on social media.

“It is shameful on their part to do that because we have never seen a country that runs away from dialogue and simply issues sweeping statements through X and the media against other countries,” he said.

“It is just disdainful. It is worse than the past administration of the US in terms of shuttle diplomacy, as talking to other countries is not done.”

Rubio's decision came after US President Donald Trump accused South Africa of confiscating land and treating certain groups “very badly”, while threatening to cut funding until the matter was investigated. President Cyril Ramaphosa assured that the government would engage the Trump administration to defend its land expropriation policy.

Mbalula said if the US had concerns about South Africa it should not resort to “running away”.

“What is America threatened by in South Africa? It's a big economy in the world. If they have issues with South Africa, they need to engage rather than stay away and run away. That is an act of cowardice and recklessness on their part.

“Nonetheless, we will not tire. We are a great nation that is resilient. We will engage them on the matters they raise with us.”

South Africa will host a meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 on February 20-21 in Johannesburg. South Africa has the G20 presidency from December 2024 to November 2025.

Despite Rubio's decision, Mbalula welcomed the attendance of other countries at the summit.

“We are a great nation and we will welcome all other nations that come to our beautiful, peace-loving country for the G20 summit. Those who want to stay away and make announcements through a brief paragraph on X do so at their own discretion. Our focus is on the task at hand.”

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