At least three separate delegations of South Africans are planning to visit the U.S. after President Donald Trump’s criticism of their country’s Expropriation Act last week — but it is not clear whom they will meet in the new administration.
South Africans were caught by surprise when Trump spoke out against the new law, and when he issued an executive order freezing aid; criticizing South Africa for siding with Iran and Hamas; and offering asylum to Afrikaner farmers.
Former President Thabo Mbeki told SABC News that he was completely baffled: “I honestly don’t understand it … there is a radical change completely out of the blue with regard to the behavior of the Republican Party in the U.S. towards us.”
But it is not just Republicans who have soured on South Africa’s foreign and domestic policies.
Democrats, too, have lost patience with South Africa, writing to then-President Joe Biden in 2023 that South Africa should be punished for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At least three separate delegations are planned. One is being organized by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa; one is being arranged by the opposition Democratic Alliance; and another is being arranged by the trade union Solidarity, which tends to represent white and Afrikaans-speaking workers.
The first two delegations seem determined to explain to President Trump why he is wrong; the third seems to want to explain why he is right.
But aside from the lack of a common front, there is also another challenge: there may be no one in a position of responsibility who will meet with them.
President Trump is unlikely to do so, as is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced earlier this month that he will not attend a G20 meeting in South Africa next week over the country’s “anti-Americanism.”
Earlier this week, Trump was noncommittal when asked whether he would attend the G20 summit in South Africa in November. (The U.S. assumes leadership of the G20 in December.)
There are few other officials who could meet with the South Africans.
Democrats have placed a hold on the confirmation of new State Department nominees in retaliation for Trump’s efforts, through Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk (a former South African), to shut down most of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), whose wasteful and arguably corrupt spending has come under public scrutiny.
(One USAID program in South Africa, for example, provided $38 million to encourage men to undergo voluntary circumcision as a means of reducing the transmission of HIV. It is unclear how many men actually volunteered.)
In the past, South African delegations have met with friendly members of Congress. But they will find few friends this time around. Republicans have other bones to pick with South Africa: Send. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) recently slammed South Africa for bowing to China by forcing diplomats from Taiwan to move their embassy out of Pretoria.
South Africa has an ambassador in Washington, DC, Ebrahim Rasool, but he has come under criticism for his explicit support for Hamas terrorists. In the current crisis, his response has been to accuse President Trump of coming under the influence of enthusiasts for apartheid.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), continued to take actions guaranteed to irritate the United States, attending a celebration of the 46th anniversary of the “Victory of the Islamic Revolution” in Iran at the Iranian embassy in Pretoria.
South Africa’s leaders seem to believe that the focus should be persuasion behind closed doors in Washington rather than change to failing policies at home.
This time, persuasion may not be possible.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
