The residents of Orania — population 3,000 — in the semi-arid Karoo region want US President Donald Trump to help them become a state.
The US was in talks to invest billions of dollars in mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and wants to help end a conflict raging in the country’s east, said President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa during a visit on Thursday.
South African assets remained under pressure on Thursday after being hit by a double whammy of Trump’s announcement of new and higher tariffs and a contentious Budget vote that has threatened the ruling coalition’s future.
Orania wants Trump’s help to become state
A group of white Afrikaners was so opposed to majority black rule when apartheid ended some three decades ago that they carved out a separatist enclave, the only town in South Africa where all residents, including menial workers, are white.
Now, the residents of Orania — population 3,000 — in the semi-arid Karoo region want US President Donald Trump to help them become a state.
Last week, community leaders from Orania visited the US seeking recognition as an autonomous entity. South African authorities acknowledge it as a town that can raise local taxes and deliver services.
“We wanted to ... gain recognition, with the American focus on South Africa now,” Orania Movement leader Joost Strydom told Reuters, on a hill strewn with bronzes of past Afrikaner leaders, including from the era of racist white minority rule that was ended by internal resistance and international outrage.
The 8,000-hectare settlement is riding an unprecedented wave of support from right-wing Americans for Afrikaner nationalists, who irrevocably lost power when apartheid ended in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.
In New York and Washington, the Orania leaders met influencers, think-tanks and low-ranking Republican politicians.
“We told them South Africa is such a ... diverse country that it’s not a good idea to try and manage it centrally,” said Strydom.
Three senior Orania officials interviewed by Reuters were vague about the help they sought in the US. They said they were not seeking handouts but wanted investment to build houses to keep up with its 15% population growth, infrastructure and energy independence that it has almost half-achieved with solar.
Strydom declined to say whether his delegation had contact with the Trump administration. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
South African foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri told Reuters: “[Orania’s] not... a country. They are subject to the laws of South Africa and ... our Constitution.”
Other Afrikaner nationalist groups have also visited the US to build alliances with overwhelmingly white, Republican audiences, prompting accusations back home that such trips stoke racial tensions.
The leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) last week accused Orania’s leaders of “destroying the unity of this country”, a charge they reject.
US dangles billions of dollars in DRC mineral investment
The US was in talks to invest billions of dollars in mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and wants to help end a conflict raging in the country’s east, said President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa during a visit on Thursday.
DRC, which has vast reserves of cobalt, lithium and uranium among other minerals, has been fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have seized swathes of its territory this year.
The US, which on Wednesday sent shockwaves across the world by announcing a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, said last month that it was open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with DRC after a Congolese senator contacted US officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.
“You have heard about a minerals agreement. We have reviewed the Congo’s proposal, and … the president and I have agreed on a path forward for its development,” said US senior adviser Massad Boulos after meeting DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa.
The details of any potential deal, or DRC’s proposal, were not made public on Thursday.
DRC’s minerals, which are used in mobile phones and electric cars, are currently dominated by China and its mining companies.
South African markets hit by tariffs and shaky coalition
South African assets remained under pressure on Thursday after being hit by a double whammy of Trump’s announcement of new and higher tariffs and a contentious Budget vote that has threatened the ruling coalition’s future.
The risk-sensitive rand traded at 18.76 against the dollar by 1511 GMT. It hit 19.0150 per dollar earlier in the day, its weakest level since mid-January.
On Wednesday, Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, and higher duties on dozens of countries, including South Africa, which was hit with a 31% rate.
On the Johannesburg stock market, the Top-40 index closed 3.3% lower.
The cost of insuring South Africa’s debt against default rose to its highest since late April last year, up 16 basis points from Wednesday’s close to reach 254 basis points, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
South Africa’s Presidency said it urgently wanted a new trade deal with the US.
Major South African exports to the US include vehicles and car parts, precious stones and metals, iron and steel, machinery and aluminium products and citrus.
“While SA will look to enhance other trading partners, Pretoria’s response also requires long overdue domestic economic policy changes to kickstart growth,” said Daniel Silke, director of the Political Futures Consultancy, in a post on X.
South Africa’s Parliament passed the Budget’s fiscal framework on Wednesday after weeks of political wrangling, but the second-biggest party in the coalition, the pro-business Democratic Alliance, voted against the measure and on Thursday challenged the outcome in court.
The rand gradually weakened over the course of the day on Wednesday as market fears grew that the alliance may potentially exit the coalition and went into freefall after the tariff announcement. It slipped by as much as 2.6% against the dollar.
Uganda’s Museveni arrives in South Sudan amid political crisis
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni arrived in neighbouring South Sudan on Thursday, in the highest level mission there since clashes and the detention of the vice-president triggered regional fears of a return to civil war.
Museveni was met at the airport by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, whose administration has accused First Vice-President Riek Machar of stoking rebellion and put him under house arrest.
The Ugandan leader, whose military was invited into South Sudan last month to help secure the capital, did not refer directly to the crisis in public remarks at the airport in Juba.
The visit follows mediation missions by the African Union and an East African regional body this week aimed at de-escalating the crisis.
Museveni told reporters he would hold talks “aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and enhancing cooperation between our two nations”. Kiir said the two leaders would discuss “current political developments in the country”.
The standoff between Kiir and Machar, who led opposing forces in a 2013-2018 civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, has led the United Nations to warn that the world’s young nation could be on the brink of all-out conflict along ethnic lines.
Uganda backed Kiir’s forces during the civil war and sent troops last month amid fighting between South Sudan’s military and an ethnic Nuer militia in Upper Nile state in the northeast.
Machar’s mostly Nuer forces were allied with the White Army militia during the civil war, but his party denies government accusations of ongoing links.
Uganda’s military chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also Museveni’s son, said on Tuesday he had ordered Ugandan forces to stop attacking the White Army so long as it ceased offensives against Ugandan troops.
Machar’s party says the Ugandan intervention is a violation of South Sudan’s arms embargo.
Analysts say Kiir (73) appears to be attempting to shore up his position amid discontent within his political camp and speculation about his succession plan.
US-Africa trade programme under threat from Trump tariffs
Trump has moved to impose sweeping tariffs on most goods imported to the US, including from African countries that benefit from a US flagship trade programme for the continent.
Analysts say the new tariffs suggest that the renewal of the initiative, known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), is extremely unlikely.
Agoa provides duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products, including motor vehicles and parts, textiles and clothing, minerals and metals, agricultural products and chemicals exported by eligible African countries.
It has been renewed twice and is due to expire in September 2025.
About 35 African countries are currently eligible. Countries can lose and regain eligibility based on criteria including economic policies and protection of human rights.
Several countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Ethiopia, have successfully used Agoa to boost exports to the U.S., drive industrialization and create jobs, especially in textiles, automotives and minerals including crude oil.
The US benefits by furthering its interests on the continent. It also gains access to critical minerals and investment opportunities.
Sectors such as South Africa’s automotive industry as well as Kenya and Lesotho’s clothing sectors would be hit hardest from a sudden rise in tariffs or non-renewal of Agoa.
DA challenges legality of Budget process in court
South Africa’s DA filed a court case challenging the legality of the Budget process on Thursday and sought to block the implementation of a value-added tax increase, widening a rift in the fragile ruling coalition.
The National Assembly narrowly passed the Budget’s fiscal framework and revenue proposals on Wednesday, with the biggest party in the coalition government, the African National Congress, securing support from smaller partners and parties outside the coalition.
The DA, which is the second biggest party in the coalition, voted against the legislation, saying the adoption by a parliamentary committee of a report supporting the fiscal framework was procedurally flawed.
It also opposed a proposal in the Budget to raise VAT by one percentage point spread over two years, arguing it would hit the poorest hard.
Market fears have grown that the DA may quit the multiparty government, which was formed last year after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994. DM