President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday South Africa will symbolically hand over the G20 presidency to an "empty chair" in the absence of U.S. leadership at the summit next week, while stressing the need to repair trade ties with Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week no government official would attend the Group of 20 summit on November 22-23 in South Africa because of what he said were "human rights abuses" - citing widely debunked assertions about white South Africans being "slaughtered" and chased off their land.

Trump has said that refugee admissions to the U.S. this year will be focused largely on Afrikaners, who are mainly the descendants of Dutch settlers and make up the majority of South Africa's white population.

"I have said in the past, I don't want to h

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