By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reiterated US remains a strategic and historic partner to South Africa, which maintained its active engagements with through political, diplomatic and economic channels.
Ramaphosa was replying to questions from MPs in parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
“We will continue to engage the US and other stakeholders to correct this mischaracterisation and ensure that we restore ties between our two countries, “Ramaphosa told MPs.
“A lot of work is under way through various channels to ensure the relationship is restored, and I am confident that all the efforts that we are putting in place both diplomatic, political and otherwise will bear fruit.”
Last month president Donald Trump said South Africa was doing “terrible things” to its white farmers and offered refuge for farmers and the Afrikaans population, while also cutting financial aid to the country.
Ramaphosa affirmed on Tuesday that South Africa wants to continue working through the issues in the relationship with the US and maintain trade relations.
The tensions between the two countries risks South Africa being excluded from Agoa, which was introduced under the former US president, George W Bush, and provides duty-free access to the US market for most all products exported from more than 40 eligible sub-Sahara African countries.
Agoa expires in September 2025, but the African countries that benefit from it have been lobbying for its renewal for another 10 years.
Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africa’s participation in Agoa is at the behest of the US, adding that the country seeks to demonstrate that as much as it imports from the US, it also has value to add through exports of a variety of commodities including minerals, vehicles and agricultural products.
“When I spoke to President Trump when he was president elect, we said we value participation in Agoa but we also sell critical minerals to the US and the relationship is fairly balanced,” he told parliament.
“So many workers benefit from our participation, but at the same time, many other American workers also benefit from what we sell to Agoa. It is balanced and we want to see the mutual benefit carry on into the future.”
He said if South Africa’s participation in Agoa was withdrawn, it would continue to work with other countries around the world and show itself as a “good trading partner” that adheres “to rules and regulations that are put in place to enable our participation in trade agreements whether they are bilateral or multilateral”.
“We continue, not only in anticipation of an Agoa initiative but we continue to expand our export markets for a variety of goods around the world and as we visit various countries we do actively promote our own country, so as to ensure our reliance on various markets becomes a multiplicity of engagements,” Ramaphosa said.
He took a swipe at Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum and union Solidarity, whose leaders have visited the US to further push their argument about what they say is the victimisation of the white minority in post-apartheid South Africa.
Last month, AfriForum and Solidarity visited Washington, DC, to meet with representatives from US President Donald Trump’s administration, and hand over a memorandum of recommendations, including the aiding of an “Afrikaner development fund”.
Their visit followed a sustained attack over the past few weeks on South Africa by the Trump administration, which has halted all foreign assistance to this country because of the Expropriation Act and South Africa’s foreign policy position towards the US ally Israel.