Ramaphosa names Ayanda Dlodlo as ambassador to France

Former state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo is to be named as South Africa’s ambassador-designate to France by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

She will succeed Nathi Mthethwa, who died in September 2025 after serving as ambassador since 2024.

Dlodlo and the presidency confirmed the decision on Monday.

Dlodlo was appointed public service & administration minister in Ramaphosa’s first cabinet in 2018, before becoming state security minister in his second cabinet after his full-term inauguration in 2019.

She held the security portfolio during South Africa’s July 2021 civil unrest, a period that triggered intense political scrutiny over intelligence failures, and has said she felt unfairly scapegoated for the crisis.

Dlodlo resigned from the cabinet and the National Assembly in April 2022 to take up a position as an executive director on the World Bank’s board with special responsibility for a constituency covering Angola, Nigeria and South Africa.

Dlodlo’s appointment comes ahead of Ramaphosa’s two-day working visit to France this week, where he is expected to meet with his counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Ramaphosa will be in France from July 10 to 12 at the invitation of Unesco director-general Khaled El-Enany, to co-chair the Unesco high-level steering committee on sustainable development goal 4 (education) in Paris on July 10, followed by the Transforming Education Summit Stocktake.

On July 12, he is expected to attend the 110th commemoration of the Battle of Delville Wood at the South African Memorial in Longueval, honouring South African soldiers who died in World War 1, World War 2 and the Korean War. The event will include a wreath-laying ceremony and the unveiling of a Unesco plaque.

Ramaphosa will be accompanied by several ministers and senior government officials, the presidency has said.

France maintains a broad and diversified economic presence in South Africa through a network of companies, and nearly 480 French companies and subsidiaries make France the 11th-largest foreign investor in the country.

After an inaugural South Africa-France investment conference in Paris in May 2025, the two countries pledged to double bilateral trade by 2027 and, more recently, a new Franco-South African business council backed by both governments and bringing together executives from firms including Aspen, Sibanye-Stillwater, Naspers, Canal Plus and Airbus.