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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Following the Trump administration’s of its ambassador, the President of South Africa has named a former deputy finance minister as a special envoy to the United States, the president announced Monday.
President Ramaphosa stated that the appointment of Mcebisi Jonas is intended to help South Africa mend its relationship with the U.S., a relationship which since Donald Trump became President.
Trump has accused the South African government, which is led by Black leaders, of domestically and has also voiced criticism of its foreign policy, characterizing it as anti-American. He in February that the U.S. would cut funding to South Africa because of these concerns.
Trump reiterated his criticisms in a Truth Social post this past weekend, suggesting that the U.S. this year were it to be hosted in South Africa as planned. South Africa currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20, a group comprising developed and developing nations, and is scheduled to host a summit for world leaders and prominent diplomats in Johannesburg in November.
“Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!” Trump posted on Saturday.
In the same post, Trump repeated his assertion that South Africa is permitting land to be seized “and then killing them and their families.”
The claim that white farmers are experiencing land seizures or are becoming victims of racially motivated killings has been made by Trump and his advisor Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa. South Africa maintains that these claims are based on inaccurate information.
South Africa has enacted a controversial new land expropriation law that allows the government to take land without providing compensation if it is deemed to be in the public interest. This law has faced criticism as an attack on their land holdings, although no land has yet been seized under its provisions.
Trump’s executive order also took issue with South Africa bringing a case before the International Court of Justice regarding Palestinians in Gaza. The Trump administration asserted that South Africa is enacting anti-American foreign policies and backing the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as Iran.
South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S. was expelled in March as a result of remarks he made during a webinar hosted by a think tank. In the talk, which he defended as an explanation of the evolving political landscape in the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool stated that Trump was instigating “an assault on incumbency — those who are in power” and suggested that the Make America Great Again movement was partially fueled by a “supremacist instinct.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled Rasool a “race-baiting politician” who harbors hatred for Trump, declared him persona non grata, and demanded his departure from the U.S. Rasool from supporters.
South Africa has not yet appointed a new ambassador.