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Assessing the impact of Ramaphosa’s global journeys on South Africa’s trade and investment

Bhaso Ndzendze
By Bhaso Ndzendze
3 Mar 2025
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As President Cyril Ramaphosa moves increasingly into his role as a global statesperson, his focus on promoting South Africa as a trade and investment destination has taken a back seat. This shows in the data.

When he took over the presidency, Cyril Ramaphosa sought to communicate a “New Dawn”. Internationally, that meant showing that South Africa would be a good place to do business again for the rest of the world.

The idea was straightforward but layered: given the negative perception accumulated over what he termed the “nine wasted years” under his predecessor, the new head of state and government would use his business know-how to simultaneously clean up South Africa’s image and attract international investment and trade.

This is not without reason. Despite the attempt at opening up and equalising the movement of goods and financial flows through the World Trade Organization, global commerce is still a political phenomenon, as presently demonstrated by the all-too-visible hand of the Trump administration in the US’s approach to tariffs. (South Africa has sometimes gained from this, as shown in these pages last year).

So-called developing countries are still under pressure to prove their investment worthiness, and this often requires that their leaders personally be at the forefront of sending the right signals to foreign capital, and (to a lesser extent) to foster trade opportunities abroad.

How much do the trips cost?


The total cost of Ramaphosa’s international travels is not a matter of well-kept or well-updated public record. However, in January 2024 a response by then defence minister Thandi Modise to a question raised in Parliament by John Steenhuisen determined that the South African taxpayer had contributed about R138.8-million towards the president’s total (official) trips since April 2018.

All told, Modise’s submission showed that R33.7-million was spent in the 2018/19 financial year; R42.4-million for 2019/20; R5.1-million for 2020/21; R7.8-million for 2021/22; R30.7-million for 2022/23; and R19-million in the erstwhile financial year (April 2023 to January 2024).

Where did the president go?


In 2018, the new president undertook a total of 26 visits, with 10 focused on trade and investment. The following year, he travelled internationally 23 times, with only five of those trips focused on trade. In 2020, there were only two trips due to global lockdowns in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Neither of these visits were economic in focus, being to Mozambique and the AU’s ordinary summit.

In 2021, as the world gradually resumed travel, the president went on seven trips, three of which were economic in nature (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal, all in December). The following year saw another seven trips, only two of which were economic (Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom). In 2023, the president undertook 16 trips, with only Qatar and Namibia having an economic focus. The rest were as a result of security and political crises.

What has been the economic impact of these trips? That is difficult to measure precisely, as visits may be an important first step for sowing seeds that will pay off in future. With this in mind, we are better served splitting the president’s destinations into two — with those that preceded Covid-19 and those that have taken place in the post-pandemic era.

Assessing the value of the trips


The president’s overtly economic visits in 2018 were to Rwanda, the UK, Canada (G7 and bilateral), Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, China (Focac), Germany (G20 Africa and bilateral), and Belgium (EU-South Africa summit and bilateral). This makes the trade-related trips account for 38% of that year’s total trips.

The president’s 2019 destinations were Russia, Brazil (BRICS), Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Japan (Ticad). This makes the trade-related trips account for 21.7% of that year’s total trips. With the resumption of international travel in 2021, the president visited seven countries, of which four were trade-related: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal. This puts trade trips at 57% of that year’s travels.

Trade-related trips made up 28% of the total trips made by President Ramaphosa in 2022. These were to the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia. The year 2023 saw 16 trips, of which two (or 12.5%) were economic in nature: Qatar and Namibia.

The time since the visits has been followed by mixed patterns, but decidedly points to some correlation with increased exports to countries visited. The outcomes may be grouped into three groups:

  • Those that have been followed by no growth after the president’s visit (Nigeria in both 2018 and 2021; Ghana, the US, the UK in 2022, and Qatar in 2023).

  • Those that were followed by modest growth (the UAE and Zambia in 2018, and Brazil in 2019).

  • Those that led to noticeable growth in South African exports that surpasses previous trends. These include, with the growth in brackets, Rwanda (21%), the UK (38%), Saudi Arabia (26%), China (21%) and Germany (30%) in 2018; Japan (95%) in 2021; Ivory Coast (37%) and Senegal (73%) in 2021.


Since Ramaphosa took office in 2018, the country’s trade surplus has also grown from R83-billion to R168-billion (or 102%). None of the countries visited from 2022 onwards have recorded a noticeable growth in their imports of South African goods, a fact that will be returned to later.

Investment growth seems to correlate with travels


Between 2013 and 2017, South Africa-bound foreign direct investment was on a downward spiral, having moved from $8.23-billion to $2.06-billion.

From Ramaphosa’s first year there was a clear rebound, with foreign direct investment growing to $5.57-billion in 2018, and it somewhat kept pace at $5.12-billion in 2019, before declining to $3.15-billion in the first year of the pandemic.

In 2021, South Africa’s inward foreign direct investment grew to $40.6-billion (or an improvement of over 1,000% compared to the previous year). Concerningly, though, growth in incoming foreign investment does not seem to always correlate with job creation and economic development.

Moreover, in the past three years, foreign direct investment has once again been on a downward trend: $9.24-billion in 2022 and $3.44-billion in 2023.

Why might this be? One plausible explanation is the changing focus of the president’s international trips.

Verdict on the president’s travels


Over time, we observe that the president’s international travels have become less and less about trade, and more about political matters. This is a milestone in becoming a global statesperson, indicative of the world calling on you to mediate or otherwise participate in providing solutions to pressing diplomatic and security issues.

As seen, the share of trade- and investment-focused trips has declined from 38% in 2018, to just over 10% as of 2023. As compared to when the president first came into office, Africa and the world face a greater number of crises. Between 2021 and 2023, a high number of the president’s international trips were “extraordinary” (or unplanned).

The president’s focus on political, rather than economic, foreign policy is reflected in this year’s overtly political, BRICS-like, theme for the South Africa-hosted G20: Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.

The shift towards more political travels by the president is also indicative of the investment driver role falling on other members of his Cabinet (no matter how ineffectively).

But the pattern is clear: with Ramaphosa’s itinerary becoming almost exclusively occupied by political rather than economic objectives, the president’s money-drawing potential is under-realised. DM

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