US absence from G20 summit ‘of no consequence'

The tension between South Africa and the US government do not affect the G20, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says.

- Itumeleng Mafisa

US President Donald Trump has said that he will not be attending the summit in SA.

He told a conference in Miami last week that "terrible things" are happening in South Africa.

But Ntshavheni said the US remains an important trade partner to South Africa.

"US-South Africa relations have nothing to do with the G20. The G20 is a multilateral platform with the top 20 countries in the world being part of that formation," she said yesterday.

"So South Africa has its own bilateral relations with the US and we have indicated that we deem that relationship as strategic and as important to us.