G20: SA won’t bend rules for any country, says Presidency’s Magwenya

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said South Africa won’t bend the rules for any country as it prepares to handover the G20 presidency to the United States (US).

Magwenya has also reiterated the South African government’s stance that it won’t be handing over the G20 presidency to what he called "junior embassy officials" from the US, which chose to boycott the summit.

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He also said the work done before this weekend’s summit has been “future proofed” and can’t be undone by any country when it takes over the presidency.

Magwenya was addressing journalists shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the summit at the Nasrec Expo Centre.

“However, in this case, one must give consideration that you have more than one country. It’s the G20 plus the African Union, plus the European Union, therefore we can’t then bend the rules just for one country. We need to respect the countries who are part of the process who’ve worked tirelessly to make sure that this G20 is a success that it is now.” said Magwenya