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SA works the Washington halls to avert aid and trade crisis

SA works the Washington halls to avert aid and trade crisis
Ferial Haffajee
By Ferial Haffajee
13 Feb 2025
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South Africa’s newly minted ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, has said the country is very worried about the rapid rise in tensions between the two countries. Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Ronald Lamola, says Rasool is working the halls in Washington to fix the relationship. We started by asking how to exercise geopolitical diplomacy in a social media age which favours megaphone diplomacy.

Ferial Haffajee: How do you exercise diplomacy when global diplomacy, at least insofar as the US is concerned, now happens on social media? US President Donald Trump’s disinformation post on the Expropriation Act earlier this month roiled markets and upended other important agendas in South Africa like a State of the Nation Address, a fracturing power-sharing arrangement, and wars across our continent.

Chrispin Phiri: It is not ideal to conduct diplomacy on social media. We have seen in recent days that this type of engagement does not give one the opportunity to understand what underpins the rationale of these pronouncements. Information can only be exchanged and authenticated through dialogue and the diplomatic channel.

FH: Did the US administration reach out by diplomatic channels prior to the post?

CP: Unfortunately not, and I am quite certain if they had, they would not have been the centre of misinformation.

trump executive order

FH: What has the newly minted US Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool done since? Was he able to have talks with government representatives to attempt to show that the post was false – that there is no forced confiscation of land?

CP: The Mission in the US has been at work since the arrival of the new Ambassador (in December 2024) but especially intensified its efforts after the first post by President Trump on SA’s land reform, in anticipation of possible action. This continued after the executive order by President Trump. Unfortunately, interlocutors in the administration are not yet in place, especially in the State Department and Commerce, so we have been engaging both sides of the aisle in Congress and Senate, together with business and think tanks. The primary task was to address the misrepresentation on our land and other positions.




FH: The US administration is shaping as a disruptor of traditional geopolitics: will we appease and seek dialogue or oppose the chaos? Is there too much power distance between South Africa and the US to oppose it?

CP: History teaches us that the US is one of the foremost architects and proponents of the multilateral system as we know it today. We share common values with the United States of America – democracy, human rights outlook and the rule of law. We do not believe that the recent chasm is based on these values.

Our longstanding non-alignment foreign policy stance has been consistent. On the contrary, it appears as though our insistence on a geopolitical system foregrounded in the consistent application of international law, regardless of the actors involved, has ruptured the status quo. We believe that through strategic diplomatic work, we will be able to engage all our partners, including the United States, in a manner that aligns with the original intentions of the United Nations Charter and international law.

FH: US Senator Ted Cruz has also said, on social media (where trade and other relationships now seem to be negotiated), that he would, as chairperson of the Senate’s Africa Subcommittee, force a hard look at South Africa. This, of course, immediately raises concerns that the preferential access agreement, Agoa (the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act), is in play. The end of Agoa would immediately see jobs shed. What will South Africa’s approach be?

CP: There is an important dynamic that one must take into account when considering the pronouncements of certain congressmen and senators. One cannot discount the influence and impact of lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (defined by Wikipedia as a pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates its policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States).

We view Agoa in the context of a mutually beneficial trade relationship with the US, which includes abundant US access to our critical minerals, particularly the platinum group of metals. This is a very important consideration that decision-makers must weigh across the board.

FH: Whether it’s Cruz, J Peter Pham (an influential Africa policy specialist), or Joel Pollak (a shortlisted Trump pick for US ambassador in South Africa), the key message emerging is that the US does not like where South Africa has placed itself globally – in the BRICS+ group, as a friend of Russia, as an ally of Palestine. What is the government’s response to this?

CP: As sovereign states, we are guided by our Constitution and national interests. Where disagreements arise as we implement our Constitution and national interests with strategic partners, including, but not limited to the US, we expect to be engaged in a manner that does not undermine our sovereignty.

trump sa brics

FH: Does sovereignty still count in the kind of world we see being shaped now? [Former State Department official and scholar] Anne-Marie Slaughter, writing for Project Syndicate, says the US is being de-centred in trade relationships as what she calls the “Middle Powers rising” (including SA) increasingly trade with one another.

CP: South Africa is a fully independent state that respects all nations’ rights and sovereignty.

There is absolutely no doubt that sovereignty matters. For example, South Africa’s national interest is defined as the protection and promotion of its national sovereignty and constitutional order, the wellbeing, safety and prosperity of its citizens, and a better Africa and world.

Our foreign policy rests on the belief that the country’s political independence, as a nation-state, derives meaning not only from the territorial demarcations recognised under international law, but also from the recognition of its people as deserving of a voice on how to be governed. The country’s sovereignty is inviolable, and respect for the country’s constitutional order, the rule of law, democratic political values and institutions must be protected and promoted. DM

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