South Africa vows not to bend to US pressure after G20 snub
South Africa will not bow to US pressure to change its policies on race, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said on Thursday, after Washington confirmed that Pretoria would be excluded from the G20 under its presidency.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Wednesday accusing South Africa's government of "racism" against its white citizens, an allegation that President Donald Trump has also made and which has been widely discredited.
He said South Africa would not be invited to participate in G20 meetings while the US leads the forum for the next year.
"Secretary Rubio, the world is watching. It is growing weary of double standards," Lamola wrote in an open letter to Rubio.
"We do not seek your approval for our path."
It was one of South Africa's strongest responses yet to an onslaught of US criticism this year, although Lamola underlined that he remained open to dialogue.
TRUMP'S COMMENTS HAVE ERODED US, SOUTH AFRICA TIES
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have reached a low in recent months as Trump has repeatedly made false claims about a "white genocide" in South Africa and criticised the country for its policies aimed at addressing historical racial inequality.
White people make up only about 7% of South Africa's population but still hold the vast majority of land and wealth three decades after the end of apartheid, an explicitly racist system of white minority rule.
The government now has policies that incentivise companies to hire and promote black people, in an attempt to address this imbalance.
It also passed a law this year allowing the State to expropriate land in certain circumstances, although no land belonging to whites has been "seized" as Trump claims.
"Our policies of redress are not a political invention. They are the fulfilment of a promise made to all South Africans as we emerged from the darkness of apartheid," Lamola wrote.
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