Ramaphosa says South Africa will engage Washington as US visa restrictions bite

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa is willing to keep engaging the United States, including on the points where the two countries disagree, and will do so without surrendering the country’s sovereignty.

He was speaking in Johannesburg a few days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions aimed at certain South Africans. As SABC News reported on 21 September, Ramaphosa said South Africa is prepared to engage Washington to resolve challenges in the bilateral relationship.

“We are quite willing and prepared to continue engaging with the United States as we engage with all other countries in the world,” Ramaphosa said. “Where there are challenges, we will go in with our dignity, with our sovereignty, to engage with those countries without bowing our heads and treating those nations respectfully and expecting them to treat us also respectfully. The United States is an important market for us.”

Washington has said the restrictions relate to allegations that include race-based discrimination, uncompensated land seizures and the incitement of violence. South Africa has rejected those allegations.

Trade talks are still going ahead. Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau says he has an appointment next week with his US counterparts to discuss trade relations, despite the visa announcement.

That meeting matters more to South African households than the diplomatic language around it suggests. The United States is one of South Africa’s largest single-country trading partners, and the flow runs both ways: South African citrus, wine, vehicles and metals go out, and machinery, aircraft parts, chemicals and agricultural goods come in. A visa row that spills into the trade relationship is felt first by exporters, freight operators and the workers whose shifts depend on those orders.

South Africa’s position is that the allegations behind the restrictions are not supported. The government has said it will defend its sovereignty while keeping the channels open, which is the same approach it has taken with other governments it disagrees with.

The visa restrictions themselves have not been set out in detail in the public record. It is not yet clear which named individuals are affected, how many people the measures cover, or what a person would have to show to be removed from the list. Those are the questions that will decide whether the announcement is a narrow diplomatic signal or something with wider practical effect for South Africans travelling to the United States.

What is scheduled is the Tau meeting with US counterparts next week, which puts a date on the next round of engagement. Until then, the public record holds two positions that have not moved: Washington’s allegations, which South Africa rejects, and South Africa’s stated willingness to keep talking.

Source: SABC News, Ramaphosa: SA prepared to engage US to resolve bilateral challenges