{"id":810753,"date":"2025-02-07T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=810753"},"modified":"2025-02-07T09:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T07:24:04","slug":"cyril-ramaphosa-playing-with-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/810753\/cyril-ramaphosa-playing-with-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyril Ramaphosa playing with fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa took aim at United States President Donald Trump in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA), which can have dire consequences for South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa delivered his annual State of the Nation Address in the Cape Town City Hall on 6 February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President told South Africans, \u201cWe will not be bullied. We will stand together as a united nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will speak with one voice in defence of our national interest, our sovereignty and our constitutional democracy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he did not explicitly mention Trump, it was widely seen as a response to the United States President\u2019s criticism of South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump alleged that South Africa is confiscating land and mistreating certain classes of people. \u201cThe United States won\u2019t stand for it. We will act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the United States would cut off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation into the issue has been completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other influential people in the Trump Administration, including Elon Musk and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, also criticised South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio cited South Africa\u2019s new land expropriation law as one of the many reasons why he is snubbing the G20 being hosted in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth Africa is doing very bad things and expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, and sustainability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk slated Ramaphosa for defending \u201copenly racist ownership laws\u201d, referring to black empowerment laws that differentiate on race regarding business policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa responded to Trump and others, saying South Africa is a constitutional democracy deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice, and equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe South African government has not confiscated any land. The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa\u2019s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said they hoped Trump would visit South Africa before the G20 Summit, where the heads of state could meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said he would continue to engage the United States on South Africa’s laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyril Ramaphosa playing with fire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dawie Roodt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Award-winning economist Dawie Roodt warned that South Africa faces dire consequences for not making Trump happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told Biznews that whether South Africa likes Trump or not, he is the most powerful man in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got the biggest economy behind him. He\u2019s got the world\u2019s reserve currency behind him. He\u2019s got technology behind him,\u201d Roodt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonald Trump mostly gets what he wants. That is the reality. That\u2019s the reality that we have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that South Africa\u2019s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) membership is at serious risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we remain on AGOA for the next few months, South Africa should consider itself lucky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt argued that South Africa will be kicked out of AGOA unless it takes extraordinary measures to get on Donald Trump’s good side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not where it stops. \u201cIf the relations deteriorate even further, further actions against South Africa are possible, including levies and import duties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that it could become even worse, including sanctions, which would cause serious economic hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States is South Africa\u2019s second biggest trading partner and is important in funding fiscal deficits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of strengthening its relationship with the United States, South Africa has aligned itself with countries like Iran, Palestine, Russia, and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s this rivalry between the United States and those countries. However, South Africa decided to align more with the enemies of the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roodt expects the United States to act. \u201cDonald Trump is making it clear that bad things will happen to South Africa if we continue on this path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must understand that if we don\u2019t polish Trump\u2019s ego, we\u2019re going to pay a very dear price. South Africa simply cannot afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa took aim at United States President Donald Trump in his State of the Nation Address, which can have dire consequences for South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":780681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1293,10849,2662,21658,1456,10022],"class_list":["post-810753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-donald-trump","tag-elon-musk","tag-marco-rubio","tag-state-of-the-nation-address","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810778,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810753\/revisions\/810778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}