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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ramaphosa struggles to mend fences with Trump
The Trump administration is treating South Africa almost like a pariah, blacklisting its envoys, refusing to send top-level officials to meetings it hosts, and threatening to hit the nation with such high tariffs that its economic crisis is likely to deepen. The latest sign of this came with the revelation by the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), that the US government had rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy, denying him a diplomatic visa in May and refusing to recognise him as an "official interlocutor". Ramaphosa had created the post for Mcebisi Jonas, the non-executive chairman of mobile phone giant MTN and a respected former deputy finance minister, to improve South Africa's rock-bottom relationship with the US. Ramaphosa's spokesman accused the DA of "disinformation", but did not explicitly deny the party's claim. The US State Department declined to comment when contacted by the BBC, citing "visa record confidentiality". Jonas's appointment came after President Donald Trump had cut off aid to South Africa, accused Ramaphosa's government of persecuting white people, condemned it for binging a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and for "reinvigorating" relations with Iran - an implacable foe of the US. Priyal Singh, a South Africa foreign policy expert at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC that if the DA's claims about Jonas were true, it would be in line with the Trump administration's strategy to give South Africa the "cold shoulder, and cut off channels of communication that it so desperately needs". The US has not only cut back bilateral relations with South Africa, but also boycotted it in global bodies like the G20 - which Ramaphosa currently chairs, hoping to advance the interests of developing nations in talks with the world's richest states. The latest sign of this was US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision to skip Thursday's meeting of G20 finance ministers in South Africa, preferring to send a lower-ranking official instead. Bessent skipped a similar meeting in February, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio stayed away from a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, saying Ramaphosa's government was doing "very bad things" and he could not "coddle anti-Americanism". Ramaphosa had hoped to get relations with the US back on an even keel after Trump invited him to the Oval Office in May - only for the US president to ambush him by showing footage and brandishing a sheaf of spurious reports to advance his widely discredited claim that a genocide was taking place against white people in South Africa. Jonas was strikingly absent from Ramaphosa's high-powered delegation, giving credence to the DA's claim that he was unwelcome in Washington. This put South Africa back to square one as the US had expelled its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, after he accused Trump, in a leaked speech given at a meeting of a think-tank, of "mobilising a supremacism" and trying to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle" as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US. In a politically odd decision, Ramaphosa left the post vacant, despite its significance, suggesting that his government had a dearth of well qualified career diplomats who could rebuild relations with South Africa's second-biggest trading partner. Instead, Ramaphosa pinned his hopes on a special envoy who, he said at the time of Jonas's appointment, would "lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation's interests". But it is unclear how Ramaphosa expected Jonas to achieve this given that he, like Rasool, had made controversial remarks about Trump, calling him a "racist" and a "narcissistic right-winger" in a 2020 speech that came back to haunt him after his appointment. This was compounded by the fact that MTN had a 49% stake in Iran's telecom company IranCell, a major concern for the US. Compared to its previous stances, South Africa was "more circumspect" - as Mr Singh put it - in its response to US air strikes on Iran in June, merely saying that it viewed the conflict with "great anxiety" and hoped that it could be resolved through dialogue. W Gyude Moore, a policy analyst at the US-based Center for Global Development, told the BBC that it was not surprising that South Africa was in Trump's firing line. He pointed out that South Africa championed what Trump's support-base saw as "woke culture". For instance, Ramaphosa regarded the G20 as a forum through which to promote international "solidarity, equality and sustainability", which Rubio had opposed, equating it to "diversity, equity and inclusion", as well as climate change. Mr Moore said this was also borne out in the Trump's administration's attitude towards South Africa's "black empowerment" policy, accusing it of "race-based discrimination" against white people. Ramaphosa's government sees it as necessary to address the legacy of the racist system of apartheid. "I cannot see how the differences can be resolved. South Africa will just have to carry on, and strengthen ties with other countries. It's not the only one in the crosshairs of the Trump administration," Mr Moore added. But it is a major blow to South Africa, as it had maintained strong trade and aid relations with successive Republican and Democratic administrations despite having sharp differences with them. Mr Singh pointed out that South Africa, for example, opposed the Republican George W Bush's war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but South Africa still benefited from Pepfar, the programme he had established to tackle HIV/Aids, until the Trump administration slashed funding earlier this year. "The Trump administration is completely different, and caught everyone off-guard. South Africa will just have to weather out the storm, and try to mitigate the damage," Mr Singh said. But the economic consequences could be devastating - especially if Trump imposes 30% tariffs on South African goods from 1 August, as he has threatened to do. South Africa's central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago said the tariffs could lead to around 100,000 job losses - worrying for a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 32.9%. The tariffs would hit South Africa's agriculture sector hard. This is ironic as Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of the country's Afrikaner farmers, offering them refugee status in the US. It also gives them an opportunity to farm in the US and boost its economy in line with Trump's "America First" policy. More BBC stories on US-South Africa relations: Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims? Unpacking the South African land law that so inflames Trump How Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down in South Africa Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica BBC Africa podcasts Focus on Africa This Is Africa
BBC News
8 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Trump and South Africa: Mcebisi Jonas 'shunned' and Scott Bessent skips G20 meeting
The Trump administration is treating South Africa almost like a pariah, blacklisting its envoys, refusing to send top-level officials to meetings it hosts, and threatening to hit the nation with such high tariffs that its economic crisis is likely to deepen. The latest sign of this came with the revelation by the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), that the US government had rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy, denying him a diplomatic visa in May and refusing to recognise him as an "official interlocutor". Ramaphosa had created the post for Mcebisi Jonas, the non-executive chairman of mobile phone giant MTN and a respected former deputy finance minister, to improve South Africa's rock-bottom relationship with the spokesman accused the DA of "disinformation", but did not explicitly deny the party's claim. The US State Department declined to comment when contacted by the BBC, citing "visa record confidentiality".Jonas's appointment came after President Donald Trump had cut off aid to South Africa, accused Ramaphosa's government of persecuting white people, condemned it for binging a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and for "reinvigorating" relations with Iran - an implacable foe of the US. Priyal Singh, a South Africa foreign policy expert at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC that if the DA's claims about Jonas were true, it would be in line with the Trump administration's strategy to give South Africa the "cold shoulder, and cut off channels of communication that it so desperately needs". The US has not only cut back bilateral relations with South Africa, but also boycotted it in global bodies like the G20 - which Ramaphosa currently chairs, hoping to advance the interests of developing nations in talks with the world's richest states. The latest sign of this was US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision to skip Thursday's meeting of G20 finance ministers in South Africa, preferring to send a lower-ranking official skipped a similar meeting in February, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio stayed away from a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, saying Ramaphosa's government was doing "very bad things" and he could not "coddle anti-Americanism".Ramaphosa had hoped to get relations with the US back on an even keel after Trump invited him to the Oval Office in May - only for the US president to ambush him by showing footage and brandishing a sheaf of spurious reports to advance his widely discredited claim that a genocide was taking place against white people in South Africa. Jonas was strikingly absent from Ramaphosa's high-powered delegation, giving credence to the DA's claim that he was unwelcome in Washington. This put South Africa back to square one as the US had expelled its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, after he accused Trump, in a leaked speech given at a meeting of a think-tank, of "mobilising a supremacism" and trying to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle" as the white population faced becoming a minority in the a politically odd decision, Ramaphosa left the post vacant, despite its significance, suggesting that his government had a dearth of well qualified career diplomats who could rebuild relations with South Africa's second-biggest trading partner. Instead, Ramaphosa pinned his hopes on a special envoy who, he said at the time of Jonas's appointment, would "lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation's interests".But it is unclear how Ramaphosa expected Jonas to achieve this given that he, like Rasool, had made controversial remarks about Trump, calling him a "racist" and a "narcissistic right-winger" in a 2020 speech that came back to haunt him after his was compounded by the fact that MTN had a 49% stake in Iran's telecom company IranCell, a major concern for the to its previous stances, South Africa was "more circumspect" - as Mr Singh put it - in its response to US air strikes on Iran in June, merely saying that it viewed the conflict with "great anxiety" and hoped that it could be resolved through dialogue. W Gyude Moore, a policy analyst at the US-based Center for Global Development, told the BBC that it was not surprising that South Africa was in Trump's firing pointed out that South Africa championed what Trump's support-base saw as "woke culture". For instance, Ramaphosa regarded the G20 as a forum through which to promote international "solidarity, equality and sustainability", which Rubio had opposed, equating it to "diversity, equity and inclusion", as well as climate Moore said this was also borne out in the Trump's administration's attitude towards South Africa's "black empowerment" policy, accusing it of "race-based discrimination" against white people. Ramaphosa's government sees it as necessary to address the legacy of the racist system of apartheid."I cannot see how the differences can be resolved. South Africa will just have to carry on, and strengthen ties with other countries. It's not the only one in the crosshairs of the Trump administration," Mr Moore added. But it is a major blow to South Africa, as it had maintained strong trade and aid relations with successive Republican and Democratic administrations despite having sharp differences with them. Mr Singh pointed out that South Africa, for example, opposed the Republican George W Bush's war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but South Africa still benefited from Pepfar, the programme he had established to tackle HIV/Aids, until the Trump administration slashed funding earlier this year."The Trump administration is completely different, and caught everyone off-guard. South Africa will just have to weather out the storm, and try to mitigate the damage," Mr Singh said. But the economic consequences could be devastating - especially if Trump imposes 30% tariffs on South African goods from 1 August, as he has threatened to do. South Africa's central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago said the tariffs could lead to around 100,000 job losses - worrying for a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 32.9%.The tariffs would hit South Africa's agriculture sector hard. This is ironic as Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of the country's Afrikaner farmers, offering them refugee status in the US. It also gives them an opportunity to farm in the US and boost its economy in line with Trump's "America First" policy. More BBC stories on US-South Africa relations: Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?Unpacking the South African land law that so inflames TrumpHow Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down in South Africa Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Eyewitness News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Ramaphosa says National Dialogue not 'just about talking', expects it to 'produce real results'
CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the National Dialogue would not be another talk shop but a platform to determine how to reach the aspirations of all South Africans. Ramaphosa kicked off his budget vote address in the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon by invoking the memory of the country's first president, Nelson Mandela, whose birthday will be celebrated through various civil society efforts on Friday. Despite the Democratic Alliance (DA)'s plans to boycott the National Dialogue, which is set to start in August, Ramaphosa said that the initiative was widely supported across society. ALSO READ: • Ramaphosa tasks eminent persons with boosting public participation in National Dialogue • National Dialogue figures say government must be ready to answer tough questions on police corruption • Committee working on National Dialogue looks to bring projected R700m cost down The president said that the National Dialogue was being convened in response to calls made by leaders and eminent persons across society. In an apparent reminder to coalition partners, Ramaphosa said the dialogue was endorsed by the Government of National Unity (GNU) when it was formed a year ago. He said it was not intended to displace democratic processes nor divert from the electoral mandate given to Parliament. "The National Dialogue is not just about talking, like with Codesa, like with National Peace Accord, through the consultation process we all went through when we drafted our Constitution, the National Dialogue is expected to produce real results that have a tangible impact on the lives of our people." Ramaphosa said that the dialogue should also be used to foster development, transformation, progress, national cohesion and national unity.
Eyewitness News
a day ago
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Presidency slams DA claims that Mcebisi Jonas' credentials rejected by US
CAPE TOWN - The Presidency has slammed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for claiming President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy Mcebisi Jonas' credentials have been rejected by the United States (US). On Tuesday, the Presidency condemned the DA for what it called the harassment of Jonas, who was appointed by Ramaphosa to deal with delicate trade and diplomacy talks with the US. ALSO READ: Presidency condemns DA's 'harassment' of Mcebisi Jonas The Presidency was responding to DA international relations spokesperson Emma Powell, who issued a statement on Tuesday, saying Jonas has not been granted a diplomatic visa by the US and will be unable to perform his duties as special envoy. Powell said Ramaphosa has, for months, been fully aware that Jonas is not welcome in Washington D.C. 'The Ramaphosa administration was explicitly advised on multiple occasions that Jonas was not acceptable to Washington and was urged to appoint an alternative envoy.' But Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya was quick to reject Powell's claims, saying special envoys don't require credentials like other diplomats or heads of missions. In a statement, he said DA has positioned itself as part of what he called a 'right-wing nexus' that seeks to use a foreign state to effect changes to national policies in South Africa. He said the DA is trying 'cheaply but dangerously' to exploit a critical engagement between South Africa and the US to protest Ramaphosa's removal of Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister of trade, industry and competition in June. The DA's pronouncements and insults against countries and international organisations, such as the Republic of Cuba or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), offend South Africa's international relations and posture. He said if the DA were to succeed in undermining South Africa's diplomatic relations, the party would harm the businesses and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of South Africans who are dependent on good trade relations.
The Citizen
a day ago
- Politics
- The Citizen
Presidency slams DA over claims Mcebisi Jonas was denied US visa
The DA claimed that the United States had denied South Africa's special envoy Mcebisi Jonas a diplomatic visa. President Cyril Ramaphosa's office has cautioned South Africans against treating the DA's 'disinformation on matters of international relations and diplomacy' as official government policy. This comes after DA spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, Emma Louise Powell, claimed on Tuesday that the United States (US) had denied South Africa's special envoy, Mcebisi Jonas, a diplomatic visa. 'In an extraordinary turn of events, the Democratic Alliance can reveal that President Cyril Ramaphosa has, for months, been fully aware that his 'Special Envoy' is not welcome in Washington D.C. 'The US government has formally rejected Jonas's credentials and has informed the Presidency that he would not be recognised as South Africa's official interlocutor,' Powell claimed. 'Sensationalism' Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said the DA is seeking to add 'sensationalism to its claim.' 'The Democratic Alliance's latest effort to embarrass President Ramaphosa's Special Envoy to North America, Mr Jonas Mcebisi, involves claims – in the DA's framing – that the United States has rejected Mr Jonas' 'credentials' and that Mr Jonas is therefore unable to perform his role as Special Envoy,' Magwenya said. 'The DA seeks to add sensationalism to its claim by suggesting President Ramaphosa and Mr Jonas face a crisis in view of the United States' pending implementation of trade tariffs announced several days ago by President Donald Trump. 'The facts around this matter include the reality that Special Envoys do not present diplomatic credentials to host countries in the way designated Heads of Mission or other diplomats are,' Magwenya said. The DA says the US has denied a visa to President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy Mcebisi Jonas, allegedly informing Pretoria in May that it does not recognise his appointment. DA international relations spokesperson Emma Powell says the president must now take the country into… — Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) July 15, 2025 ALSO READ: WATCH: 'The president appoints ambassadors,' says Ramaphosa 'Envoys' According to Magwenya, envoys are not required to account publicly for the work they undertake. 'The Presidency is therefore concerned about the Democratic Alliance's persistent campaign against South Africa's national interest and its posture of trying to embarrass and belittle our country and in this specific circumstance, Mr Jonas. 'This campaign has its origins in a Democratic Alliance visit to the United States earlier this year, to advance an ideological agenda rather than our national interest,' Magwenya said. 'Right-wing nexus' Magwenya added that the DA has positioned itself as part of a 'right-wing nexus' that seeks to use a foreign state to 'effect changes to democratically developed national policies in our own country.' 'The DA is trying cheaply but dangerously to exploit a critical engagement between South Africa and the United States to protest President Ramaphosa's removal of Mr Andrew Whitfield as Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition,' Magwenya said. 'The DA's pronouncements and insults against countries and international organisations, such as the Republic of Cuba or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, offend South Africa's international relations and posture. ALSO READ: WATCH: 'Dim the lights' — Ramaphosa pokes fun at Trump meeting 'If the DA were to succeed in undermining South Africa's relations with various nations or institutions, the party will harm the viability of businesses and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of South Africans who work in sectors that depend on the expansion of our trade relations with the world,' Magwenya said. Magwenya said Jonas's outreach does not in any way supersede the leading role played by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in South Africa's 'difficult but constructive trade negotiations with the United States, or in our diplomatic relations with this longstanding partner.' Jonas's appointment Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Jonas as the Special Envoy to the US in April. Jonas' appointment as special envoy followed the expulsion of the former South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool. Rasool returned to South Africa in March after the US Secretary of State revoked his diplomatic privileges. He was declared persona non grata and given just a week to leave the US due to comments he made about the country and the Donald Trump administration during a webinar. At the time, Ramaphosa said Jonas would serve as the official representative of the president and the government of South Africa. ALSO READ: WATCH: SA should know what leverage it has on the US and act on it, Rasool says
