A meeting of Foreign Ministers from the SADC region hosted in South Africa is an opportunity for the bloc to stand up to the bullying of the United States, says the writer.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation announced on May 4, 2026 that South Africa would host a special meeting of the Southern African Development Community Foreign Ministers at Skukuza in the Kruger National Park from May 22 to 24, 2026.
Minister Ronald Lamola would chair the gathering as Chair of the SADC Council of Ministers. The retreat was agreed upon at the SADC Council of Ministers Meeting held in Pretoria in March 2026, where ministers resolved to reflect on the prevailing geopolitical environment and its impact on the region. South Africa faces one of its most serious diplomatic disputes with the United States in years after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was formally barred from attending a G20 finance summit in Washington.
The United States has crossed a diplomatic line by formally blocking South Africa's Finance Minister from attending a G20 finance summit, an act of aggression that has left the region with no choice but to rally together against Washington's bullying. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed the exclusion on April 13, 2026, while speaking to Bloomberg at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. He was traveling to the United States for the Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank when he revealed that both he and South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago would not be attending the G20 finance chiefs gathering.
