U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend an upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa, the top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to the African country.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday evening he was boycotting the G20 meeting in South Africa scheduled for later this month over the country's controversial land expropriation law.

Late last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law that allows the state to seize land without compensation in some circumstances to address racial and other disparities in land ownership, which sparked rapid backlash from inside the White House.

The United States' Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he will not be attending the G20 Summit after Donald Trump announced that he'd cut aid to SA.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to skip G20 summit in South Africa, citing land expropriation and inequality policies.

US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has announced that he will not attend the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a statement on Thursday morning, Rubio said this is because of the ‘bad things’ South Africa is doing. He said they include forcefully taking private property from people and promoting diversity and inclusion programmes.

Criticised by Trump, Musk and now Rubio, post-apartheid law allows expropriation of land under very narrow circumstances in a country where White minority owns lion’s share of farmland.

US SECRETARY of State Marco Rubio said he won’t attend a Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg later this month, citing among his reasons South Africa’s efforts to address inequality. Read more at The Business Times.

Rubio's announcement comes two days after Trump hit out at South Africa over land reforms aimed at redressing inequalities perpetrated during the apartheid era.