SA is preparing a package of trade deals which will be presented by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s envoys to the US as part of the government’s strategy to appeal to the Trump administration’s transactional approach to foreign policy.
Trade between SA and the US, which is its second-largest trading partner behind China, continues despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to halt federal funding to SA.
However, uncertainty over the future of trade relations remains as Trump escalates his antagonistic stance towards SA and global free trade.
Addressing MPs during a question-and-answer session on Tuesday, Ramaphosa noted that when other African countries were removed from access to preferential US markets under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), they were compelled to look for other markets to export their goods. The legislation is due to expire in September and SA continues to lobby against threats to expel it from the programme.
"We received advice from a number of quarters saying the US is now in a milieu of being very transactional," Ramaphosa said. "That process is under way through our various departments and in time I will be able to send the envoys that should go and they will be going under the rubric of our foreign policy."
In January, Ramaphosa signed into law the Expropriation Bill, repealing an apartheid-era law of 1975, allowing the state to seize land in the public interest. The bill has thrust SA into the international spotlight, drawing the attention of Trump, who misleadingly used its passage to justify pulling the plugon aid to SA, saying it is a violation of human rights against white Afrikaners.
Trump’s executive order cut aid to SA, which receives 17% of its HIV/Aids budget from the US. He has offered humanitarian assistance to white Afrikaners by offering them refugee status.
The US embassy and consulates in SA said on Tuesday: "Consistent with President Trump’s executive order on addressing egregious actions of the Republic of SA, the US department of state is co-ordinating with the department of homeland security and implementing partners to consider eligibility for US refugee resettlement for disfavoured ethnic minority Afrikaners in SA who are victims of unjust racial discrimination."
Trump’s actions have the support of his SA-born billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, and right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups who have further urged the US president to sanction individual ANC leaders.
Musk, who is seeking to have his Starlink internet service operationalised in SA, has used his social media platform X to rally against the "openly racist laws" of the country of his birth.
AfriForum and Solidarity’s visit to the US, where they lobbied influential legislators to back their position on SA, was unpatriotic, Ramaphosa said.
"I take a dim view, in fact, a very negative view of what has ensued as they run around the world, badmouthing their own country and putting their country into disrepute," he said, adding that it would be up to the National Prosecuting Authority to determine whether the actions of these two groups could be considered treasonous.
"We have expressed concern about the mischaracterisation of the situation in SA and certain of our laws and our foreign policy positions," he said. "We will continue to engage with the US administration and other stakeholders to correct this mischaracterisation and to restore the ties between our two countries."
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