South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Wednesday, headed to the White House on a perilous mission to persuade Donald Trump to make deals with his country rather than scold and punish.
Trump had earlier attacked South Africa’s land reform law aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid and its genocide court case against Israel.
He also cancelled aid to South Africa, expelled its ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims Pretoria says are unfounded.
Ramaphosa, on state television, said “whether we like it or not, we are joined at the hip and we need to be talking to them,” before flying to Washington to meet Trump.
The stakes are high for South Africa.
The United States is its second-biggest trading partner after China, and the aid cut has already resulted in a drop in testing for HIV patients.
Ramaphosa goes into his meetings with Trump, scheduled to start at 1530 GMT, bearing offers of trade deals and investment opportunities, and accompanied by ministers, luxury goods tycoon Johann Rupert and champion golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
On Trump’s side will be Vice President JD Vance, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk who has accused Ramaphosa of pursuing anti-white policies, which he denied and senior figures from the U.S. government.
Responding to speculation in South Africa that a shouting match similar to the clash between Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Feb. 28, was a risk, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson said “Zelenskiy-style treatment” was not expected.
“The issues are different, the leaders are different,’’ he told News24, a leading South African website.
South African billionaire Rupert, founder of the Richemont luxury goods group that owns brands like Cartier and is an important investor in his home country, helped to bring about Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump, South African media reported.
Els, a former world number one golfer and four-time major champion, also played a part, according to the reports.
Both men have played golf with Trump and neither responded to requests for comment.
Ramaphosa will offer Trump a broad trade deal, as well as specific deals such as duty-free access for Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles in exchange for the firm building charging stations, and potential licensing for Musk’s Starlink company.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, who is in Ramaphosa’s delegation, said he was focused on securing and expanding South African farmers’ duty-free access to the U.S. market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
AGOA is at risk from Trump’s tariff regime, which is currently suspended but would hit South Africa with a 30 per cent duty if enacted.
For his part, Trump is likely to demand that U.S. companies be exempted from “racial requirements”, a White House official said.
South Africa has laws to compel businesses to hire and promote Black South Africans, including a requirement for large companies in some sectors, such as mining and telecom, to have a 30 per cent equity stake held by disadvantaged groups.
Ramaphosa is unlikely to agree to weaken such rules, which are core to his government’s aspiration to restore racial justice after centuries of colonialism and apartheid.
