By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The SA-US relations took the centre stage at the annual joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces dedicated to debating the State of the Nation Address (Sona) given by the President Cyril Ramaphosa the week before.
The debate revealed broad support across South Africa’s represented political parties for Ramaphosa’s message to the US in his Sona: ” We will not be bullied”
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has called on the country to unite in the face of a “new threat” of possible US tariffs and even sanctions, following a rapid deterioration in relations with the superpower.
However, he has also called for the Expropriation Act to be amended and for equity equivalent empowerment schemes to be opened to all sectors.
That threat materialised days later in the form of an executive order, stating that South Afica’s new Expropriation Act enabled it “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners agricultural property without compensation”, while also opening the way for the resettlement of Afrikaner “refugees” in the US.
“When a country faces a crisis, it needs to unite and navigate against the threat. That is what we must do now,” Steenhuisen said, while calling for the Expropriation Act to be amended to “better protect property rights”.
Ahead of the speech, the Democratic Alliance (DA) confirmed that it had filed papers in the High Court to challenge the Act, describing it as “unconstitutional, both substantively and procedurally”.
Steenhuisen said the Government of National Unity, of which the DA is part and in which he serves as Agriculture Minister, should also approach its trading partners to “seek to lower tariff barriers across the board to compensate for any increase in tariffs by the US”.
Speaking on behalf of the official opposition, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s Parliamentary leader, Dr John Hlophe, was less compromising, arguing that South Africa should respond to Donald Trump’s recent “bullying tactics”, by deepening relations with the expanding BRICS Plus bloc of countries.
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, meanwhile, also agreed that the country should not be bullied, including by “power-hungry individuals intoxicated by the wealth of apartheid”, an illusion to Elon Musk with whom he recently sparred on X.
Malema also called on Ramaphosa to provide details when he replied to the debate on Thursday, on how South Africa would be responding to Trump.
In his SoNA address, Ramaphosa announced that he would be sending a “delegation of government and other leaders to various capitals on our continent and across the world” to outline the theme of South Africa’s G20 Presidency and to explain “the many positions that we have taken”.
The country’s G20 theme of “solidarity, equality and sustainability” had already triggered US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to announce that he would not attend the G20 gathering in Johannesburg, as it conflicted with the Trump administration’s rejection of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as climate action.