Three months on, South Africa envoy sidelined in talks with US

Three months after South Africa appointed Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to the US and tasked him with helping reset bilateral relations with President Donald Trump’s administration, he has yet to visit the nation or meet with any high-level officials.

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have been fraught since Trump’s return to the White House in January. The American president has made the unfounded claim that South Africa is subjecting White farmers to genocide and confiscating their land, expelled its ambassador, halted most aid and threatened to slap a 30% reciprocal tariff on its exports to the US by Aug. 1 if a favorable trade deal isn’t struck. There have been no official land seizures in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994.

President Cyril Ramaphosa tapped Jonas, a former deputy finance minister who currently serves as chairman of telecommunications company MTN Group, to try and rebuild ties. But questions were raised about his suitability to fill the role after it emerged that he had previously made highly critical comments about Trump.

Pretoria repeatedly ignored warnings that the US opposed Jonas’ appointment, according to Emma Powell, a spokesperson on international relations for the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second-largest party and a member of the governing coalition. The Trump administration denied Jonas a diplomatic visa in May, informing South Africa’s government that it had formally rejected his credentials and he wouldn’t be recognised as an official interlocutor, she said in a statement on Tuesday.

South Africa’s Presidency rejected Powell’s comments as sensationalist disinformation, saying special envoys weren’t required to present their credentials to host countries as other diplomats were, and weren’t required to publicly account for the work they undertook. The trade and international relations departments were leading “difficult but constructive trade negotiations” with the US, and Jonas was assisting them, it said.

“While these processes are underway and in view of President Ramaphosa’s telephonic contact with President Trump as well as his working visit to Washington in May 2025, President Ramaphosa has not had a need for Mr. Jonas to visit the United States on urgent business,” the Presidency said.

The US State Department was aware of the reports on Jonas’ appointment, but “due to visa-record confidentiality, we have no comment on department actions with respect to specific cases,” a spokesperson said.

Jonas didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The US expelled South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool in March after he said on a webinar that Trump and his supporters were part of a “supremacist” movement.” A replacement has yet to be named.

© 2025 Bloomberg

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