‘It’s going to be low-key’: How South Africa will hand over the G20 presidency gavel to the US

South Africa’s handover of the G20 presidency to the United States will be a low-key affair this week, according to the Sherpa of South Africa’s G20 presidency and Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), Zane Dangor.

Dangor said the handover is expected to take place on Tuesday.

“The agreement is that we should do it low-key. It’s not just a South African issue; the US also doesn’t want a very big handover event. So we will hand over at the level of a senior official from Dirco to the US chargé d’affaires.

"That will most likely take place tomorrow (Tuesday),” Dangor told Newzroom Afrika in an interview on Monday.

On Sunday, IOL reported that International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said the South African government recognises that the United States had the right to be represented at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, but its representative to receive the presidency needed to be of an appropriate level.

IOL also reported on Saturday that South Africa had made it clear that the US could not send its embassy chargé d’affaires to receive the presidency gavel from President Cyril Ramaphosa at the summit.

Clarifying the government’s position, Lamola said the United States was free to send “anyone”, provided the envoy held senior status.

“We did not deny anyone access. The United States is a member of the G20 and if they want to be represented, they can still send anyone at the right level. It is the leaders’ summit. The right level is the head of state, a special envoy appointed by the president of that country, or it could also be a minister,” he said.

Lamola added that US embassy officials, including the chargé d’affaires, were welcome to participate in the G20 proceedings, but the chargé d’affaires could not receive the presidency gavel during the summit.

“It’s up to them, but the issue of the handover — the president of the Republic of South Africa will not be handing over to the US chargé d’affaires. We will hand over to the US in the Dirco offices, or anywhere they may want within the borders of the Republic of South Africa,” he said.

On Saturday, IOL also reported that Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed that US representatives would not attend the summit.

“No, they are not attending. We have made our position very clear. This is a breach of protocol, what they were suggesting. You cannot have a head of state handing over the presidency and leadership of such an important forum for macro-economic and related issues being handed over to a junior embassy official,” Magwenya said.

“It’s a breach of protocol. It has never happened before, and it was never going to happen for the first time here in South Africa.”

In diplomatic practice, a chargé d’affaires is the lowest-ranking head of mission, typically appointed only when a country does not have an ambassador in place. Unlike an ambassador or minister, a chargé d’affaires does not present credentials to a host head of state and is generally considered a temporary or junior-level representative.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

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