South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced plans to send a delegation to the United States to address diplomatic, trade, and other issues, following recent criticism of the country by former US President Donald Trump.
Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the G20 meetings in South Africa, Ramaphosa emphasized the importance of reaching a meaningful agreement with the US.
“We would like to go to the United States to do a deal,” Ramaphosa said during a discussion with Goldman Sachs vice chairman Richard Gnodde. “We don’t want to go and explain ourselves; we want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues.”
The announcement comes after Trump accused South Africa of “confiscating” land from white farmers and threatened to cut off funding. Trump’s comments referred to a bill signed by Ramaphosa last month, which allows the government to expropriate land in the public interest with “nil compensation” in certain circumstances. The law aims to address historic inequalities in land ownership, as the minority white population still owns most farmland nearly three decades after the end of apartheid.
Ramaphosa revealed that he had a “wonderful” call with Trump shortly after the US leader took office in January, but relations later “seemed to go a little bit off the rails.” The strained ties were further highlighted when US Secretaries of State and Finance declined to attend this month’s G20 ministerial meetings in South Africa.
The United States is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner and is set to assume the rotating G20 presidency next year. Ramaphosa stressed the need for collaboration, stating, “We have got to make a deal of one sort or another on trade issues, on diplomatic issues, on political issues, a whole span of issues. It’s inevitable that we will get together and do a deal.”
The planned delegation aims to reset relations and foster cooperation on key issues, ensuring mutual benefits for both nations.
