South Africa appointed a special envoy to the United States on April 14, after Pretoria’s ambassador was expelled by the U.S. government last month.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mcebisi Jonas to the post, saying he would help rebuild relations between the two nations, which have severely broken down in recent months.
Jonas, who was deputy finance minister between 2014 and 2017, is currently chairman of telecommunications group MTN, a role he will retain alongside his position as envoy.
Jonas will be the official representative of Ramaphosa and the South African government in talks with the United States, but his new post is different from that of an ambassador.
“However, I believe that areas of commonality and mutual interest could be embraced to reaffirm the long-standing ties between our two countries,” he said.
“There are no quick fixes in such a complex situation. I appeal that, in the national interest, South Africans exercise patience and allow us time and space to engage fully with different stakeholders in the United States and South Africa.”
South Africa has not yet appointed a new ambassador.
Relations have deteriorated between Africa’s largest economy and Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump accused South Africa’s government, led by the African National Congress (ANC), of mistreating the country’s white minority population.
He also said that South Africa’s foreign policy stances were anti-American and signed an executive order in February cutting U.S. funding to the country, citing both those issues.
Trump continued his criticism over the weekend in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying the United States did not want to attend the Group of 20 (G20) summit this year if it is held in Johannesburg as planned.
South Africa holds the rotational presidency of the group and is due to host world leaders and top diplomats for a summit in November.
“How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 Meeting when Land Confiscation and Genocide is the primary topic of conversation?” Trump wrote.
“They are taking the land of white Farmers, and then killing them and their families. The Media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”
In the post, Trump included a video featuring various clips of Julius Malema, a member of the South African Assembly and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters Party.
One of the clips showed Malema at a rally, chanting “kill the boer, the farmer,” at a stadium filled with supporters.
Malema was once head of the ANC’s youth league before he was expelled from the party in 2012.
Ramaphosa’s government has denied seizing land from white farmers and denied that they have been victims of race-based killings, saying that both those allegations, which have been leveled by Trump and his South African-born ally Elon Musk, are based on misinformation.
South Africa has passed a contentious land expropriation law that allows land to be taken by the government without compensation if it’s in the public interest.
This law has been criticized by some white advocacy groups as a pretext for targeting and relieving them of their land, although no land has yet been taken under the law.
Trump’s executive order also criticized South Africa for bringing a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Washington said the country is pursuing anti-American foreign policies and supporting both Hamas and the government of Iran.
The South African ambassador to Washington was kicked out in March over a talk he gave on a webinar organized by a think tank.
In the talk, which he described as an explanation of the new political dynamics in the United States, Ebrahim Rasool said Trump was launching “an assault on incumbency—those who are in power” and said the Make America Great Again movement resulted from a “supremacist instinct.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Rasool a “race-baiting politician” who hates Trump. He declared him persona non grata and ordered him to leave the United States.
