President Cyril Ramaphosa will not attend the G7 meeting in Italy later this week as his African National Congress (ANC) seeks to find partners to form a government.
“The president will not be attending the G7 meeting due to current domestic priorities he needs to focus on,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
Several African countries have been invited to the summit with the group of industrialised nations as they try to reach out to the continent.
The outcome of the elections in South Africa saw a major political shift after the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), failed to get an absolute majority, that would have enabled it to form a government.
President Ramaphosa has made his intentions clear of engaging other political parties intending to form a government of national unity.
The ANC is under pressure to reach an agreement quickly as the new National Assembly is set to hold its first sitting on Friday and one of its first tasks is the election of a new President which is expected to be Ramaphosa as the ANC retains the most seats in Parliament.
Aside from not participating in the G7 summit in Italy, South Africa will not be sending a delegation to the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland this weekend.