GERMANY WARNS TRUMP ON SA ‘RIFT’

‘US relinquishing influence in a part of the world that is becoming increasingly important’

- AFP and MANYANE MANYANE

A DONALD Trump-led administration's rift with South Africa would ultimately not be in Washington's interest, says German Chancellor Friedrich Merz who has urged the US president to reconsider his decision to bar Pretoria from the 2026 G20 summit in Florida.

The US and South Africa are at odds over a range of domestic and foreign policies and last week Washington snubbed the G20 summit in Johannesburg. On Wednesday Trump said he was excluding South Africa from the 2026 summit, due to be held at his own golf resort in Miami, citing alleged “horrific Human Rights Abuses” against white South Africans.

“I will try, in my conversations and meetings with the American president... to convince him that it would be good to invite all members of the G20 to America,” Merz told a press conference in Berlin.