By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed US president Donald Trump’s commitment to attend the G20 Summit in November in Johannesburg.
South Africa will hand over the presidency to the United States.
Last week Ramaphosa met Trump to reset and strengthen relations between Pretoria and Washington.
The visit aimed to strengthen bilateral ties and address tensions in the relationship, which Ramaphosa attributes largely to misinformation campaigns, including false narratives about attacks on white farmers in South Africa.
Ramaphosa underscored the importance of correcting such narratives by directly engaging with the U.S. administration.
He emphasized that South Africa’s democratic progress and complex challenges should be understood in their full context, not misrepresented by fringe voices in either country.
“Our visit came at a time when US-SA relations have come under increasing strain, largely as a result of misinformation peddled by fringe groups in our two countries, including a false narrative about a so-called genocide and an orchestrated campaign of violence against white farmers.
“In this context, it was critical for us to engage directly with the US administration to correct misinformation and provide a true account of the progress we have made as a democracy and the many and complex challenges we still face.”
Ramaphosa also confirmed that he had extended an invitation to Trump to send a government and business delegation to South Africa to explore opportunities for deepening investment and trade, but provided no specifics.
Describing the US as a key export market for South African motor vehicles, agricultural products and critical minerals, Ramaphosa argued that there was potential to increase and diversify trade, citing in particular areas such as gas, mining and critical minerals, agriculture and nuclear products.
“One of the key outcomes of the substantive discussions we had with Trump was agreement on an economic cooperation channel between the US administration and South Africa to engage further on tariffs and a broad range of trade matters.”
US ranks among SA’s top three trading partners, has given South African exporters duty-free access to the large American consumer market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and has provided over $8 billion (R152 billion) to fund South Africa’s efforts at combating AIDS since 2004 until Trump withdrew the funding on 20 January 2025.
US companies have large investments in South Africa that provide thousands of jobs, and South Africans favour the US as the best model for development by an almost 2:1 margin over second-placed China.