As published by Dr Manuel Godsin in the African Times
A high-level South African delegation is in Washington this week on a mission to rescue its ailing trade relationship with the United States. Last week, the African Union’s office in Washington convened dozens of African ambassadors to strategise a lobbying push for renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – the key US law that grants sub-Saharan countries duty-free access to American markets. With AGOA’s expiry looming, countries across Africa are scrambling to make their case: Kenya’s top trade official visited Washington last month, and now it is South Africa’s turn.
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Trade Minister Parks Tau and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment envoy Alistair Ruiters have arrived in the US capital, hoping to persuade the Trump administration to soften its hard line. Their immediate goal is to convince President Donald Trump to roll back a punishing 30% tariff on South African exports – the steepest rate the White House has imposed on any African nation.
That Pretoria must plead for fair treatment in Washington underlines how frayed US–South African relations have become. Since returning to the White House this year, President Trump has targeted South Africa with unusual fervour. In March, his administration expelled South Africa’s ambassador from Washington – an extraordinary rebuke between nations on friendly terms.
Then came the trade punishments: in early August, Trump abruptly yanked South Africa’s duty-free privileges under AGOA and slapped a 30% tariff on its goods.
Pretoria’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, has openly decried Washington’s actions – even likening a new US offer to resettle white South African farmers as refugees to “apartheid 2.0,” a scathing reference to the racial bias he sees in that policy.
South African officials note that Trump’s “unpredictable” approach has unsettled many countries, not just theirs. “We are not alone,” one minister remarked this week, cautioning that Pretoria may ultimately have to live with the tariff pain if US policy doesn’t budge.
For President Ramaphosa, the breakdown in goodwill with Washington has reinforced his strategy of diversifying South Africa’s partnerships. On August 20, just days after the tariffs hit, Ramaphosa was on the phone with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, discussing global issues and reaffirming commitments to cooperation.
Both conversations struck similar notes – bolstering BRICS unity and vowing to stand against economic coercion. These exchanges underscored Pretoria’s pivot toward the Global South just as its ties with the US were unravelling.
In Washington’s eyes, South Africa had strayed too far from the Western fold – and it is now paying the price. Trump’s 30% tariff effectively ended South Africa’s preferential access to the US market overnight, making it the only sub-Saharan country to be hit with such a steep levy.
The United States is South Africa’s second-largest export destination, a key buyer of its platinum, automobiles and citrus. So while the overall share of exports at stake is around 10% (roughly 2.5% of South Africa’s GDP), certain industries have been thrown into turmoil by the sudden cost barrier.
In Pretoria, the tariff was widely seen as retaliation for the country’s independent foreign policy. Trump has openly bristled at Ramaphosa’s government for years – accusing it of mistreating South Africa’s white minority and of cosying up to America’s rivals like Russia and China. Now, by taking punitive trade action, Trump has driven the bilateral relationship to its lowest ebb in decades.
The collapse in diplomacy was foreshadowed months ago in a bizarre Oval Office encounter. In May, Trump invited Ramaphosa to the White House and then ambushed him with a slideshow of violent crime scenes, insisting they proved a “white genocide” was happening to white farmers in South Africa. One gruesome image the US president brandished was even traced to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo – nowhere near South Africa.
Ramaphosa, maintaining his composure, refuted the spectacle point by point. Yes, South Africa faces a serious violent crime problem, he conceded, but there is no orchestrated campaign to murder white farmers. And yes, his government is pursuing land reform to address historic injustices – but it is doing so legally and not as any racist vendetta.
Trump was unmoved by such facts; for him, the theatrics appeared aimed more at his political base at home than at actually debating Ramaphosa.
Indeed, South Africa has found itself turned into a convenient prop in an American culture war. By inflating tales of brutal anti-white persecution in Africa, Trump played to a segment of his supporters who traffick in conspiracy theories – even at the cost of torpedoing a relationship with an African partner. Pretoria was left aghast at being cast as a villain in US domestic politics, but it refused to back down in the face of what it deemed misinformation.
Another South African move also crossed a red line for Washington. This year, Pretoria backed a motion to haul Israel before the International Court of Justice on allegations of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – a step almost unheard-of from a nation that had been seen as aligned with the West.
For decades, the United States has shielded Israel from such international scrutiny. South Africa’s stance flipped that script, effectively accusing one of America’s closest allies of an atrocity.
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Suddenly, genocide was not a charge reserved for Washington’s adversaries, but levelled at a friend of the US – puncturing the notion of an American monopoly on moral judgment. In the US eyes, it was an unforgivable provocation. Under Trump, what had been private displeasure curdled into open hostility.
Meanwhile, diplomatic tempers continue to flare. US officials have lambasted South Africa over everything from its plan to redistribute land to its decision to hold joint naval exercises with Russia and China.
Tensions spiked when the US ambassador in Pretoria publicly accused the South African government of secretly arming Russia – a sensational claim that prompted an inquiry on the South African side, which found no evidence of any illicit arms transfers.
Some in Ramaphosa’s circle even debated expelling the American ambassador in retaliation, though ultimately they stopped short of declaring him persona non grata. Still, Pretoria’s message was unmistakable: South Africa will not be lectured on how to conduct its affairs. The government insists its neutrality in the Ukraine conflict, its friendships with BRICS partners, and its independent foreign policy choices are not up for debate. What Washington views as betrayal, South Africa frames as a matter of sovereignty.
Confronted with a hostile Washington, South Africa is doubling down on its ties elsewhere. It has accelerated trade talks with China, explored new energy partnerships with Russia, and strengthened bonds across Africa and the Middle East.
Ramaphosa’s outreach to Putin and Lula in August was part of this broader recalibration. What the White House calls “cosying up to adversaries,” Pretoria calls diversification in a multipolar world.
The logic is straightforward: if the United States can no longer be relied on as a partner, South Africa must reduce its dependence on American goodwill. By broadening its global relationships, Pretoria is building resilience and an insurance policy against Western pressure.
Few expect President Trump’s hard line on South Africa to soften before the end of his term. In fact, Washington may well ramp up sanctions and diplomatic snubs, as the confrontation with Pretoria plays well with Trump’s base domestically.
South Africa is steeling itself for a prolonged chill. Officials are drawing up plans to support industries hit by the loss of US market access – from automakers to fruit growers – in order to save thousands of jobs now at risk.
Pretoria is also redoubling engagement in multilateral forums like BRICS, the G20 and the African Union to attract investment and backing outside the American sphere. In essence, South Africa is signalling that it will not be cowed into altering its policies by economic coercion.
This clash goes beyond a mere bilateral spat – it encapsulates a shifting global order. South Africa, a regional power and a proud democracy, is asserting that it will not be forced into choosing sides even under intense great-power pressure. The United States’ aggressive posture toward a country it once held up as a post-apartheid success story shows the lengths Washington will go to preserve its dominance.
Yet South Africa’s resolve in the face of this onslaught demonstrates something equally important: that sovereignty, solidarity, and non-alignment are more than just slogans; they are tools of survival for nations navigating an increasingly turbulent world.
The coming years will test Pretoria’s resolve and resourcefulness. But it has already made one thing clear: South Africa intends to weather the storm on its own terms, rather than bend the knee.
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