Ramaphosa Responds to Trump Broadside: We Won’t Be Bullied

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(Bloomberg) — South Africa won’t be bullied, President Cyril Ramaphosa said after his government came under fire from his US counterpart Donald Trump’s administration.

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The world is facing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, “the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,” Ramaphosa said in his state-of-the-nation address in Cape Town on Thursday. 

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“We are not daunted to navigate our path through this world,” he said, without mentioning Trump by name. “We will not be deterred. We are, as South Africans, a resilient people, and we will not be bullied.”

Ramaphosa made the remarks hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he won’t attend a Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg later this month, citing among his reasons South Africa’s efforts to address inequality and climate change. Earlier this week, Trump falsely accused the South African authorities of seizing private land and threatened to cut off all funding pending an investigation.

The standoff has soured South Africa’s relations with its second-largest trading partner after China and weighed on the nation’s assets at a time when the economy is showing signs of recovery following years of near-stagnation. It will also complicate Ramaphosa’s tenure as rotating head of the G-20 and his attempts to forge a more equitable global order. 

“The key pillars of our foreign policy remain the promotion of human rights, peace and friendship and the strengthening of fair trade and investment ties with other countries,” Ramaphosa said. “These are the principles that guide our presidency of the G-20 this year.”

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Rubio later said the US will send representatives to attend the G-20 meeting, while explaining why he was not going to attend.

“I think the whole topic of the G20 gathering is one that I don’t think we should be focused on, talking about global inclusion, equity, and these sorts of things,” he told a press conference Thursday in the Dominican Republic. “We should be focused on things like terrorism and energy security and the real threats to the national security of multiple countries.”

Coalition Government

A lawyer and one of the wealthiest Black South Africans, Ramaphosa took power in 2018 after the ruling African National Congress forced Jacob Zuma from office following his immersion in a succession of scandals. He won another five-year term last year despite the ANC losing its parliamentary majority, forging a business-friendly coalition with nine smaller parties.   

The so-called government of national unity will target a growth rate of more than 3% with a view toward tackling a 32% unemployment rate. The expansion will be driven by “massive investment” in infrastructure, with the government planning to spend more than 940 billion rand ($51 billion) over the next three years, according to Ramaphosa.

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The rand gained as much as 0.7% during the address. The currency was steady at 18.44 per dollar by 6:48 a.m. in Johannesburg on Friday.

“We have adopted a medium-term development plan, which sets out a clear and ambitious program for the next five years” and will help advance the government’s strategic priorities, including growing the economy, creating jobs, reducing poverty and tackling high living costs, he said. “We want a nation where there is work for all.”  

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A key focus will be to ensure power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., logistics company Transnet SOC Ltd. and other state entities function optimally, and a dedicated unit will be established to oversee efforts to reform them. 

The president also announced that the funding model for municipalities — many of which are barely functional and aren’t financially sustainable — will be reviewed. Separate, professionally managed water and power utilities will be established at the local-government level, he added.

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Another key initiative will be the establishment of a fund to spend 20 billion rand annually assisting Black-owned and small businesses over the next five years.

Ramaphosa’s speech came two weeks before Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is due to present the national budget. Godongwana has pledged to stay the path of fiscal consolidation even as he comes under pressure to allocate more toward welfare grants, wage increases for civil servants and bailouts for state companies. 

Other highlights from the speech:

• South Africa is committed to meeting its carbon-reduction targets at a scale and pace it can afford.
• Private investment will be sought in power-transmission infrastructure.
• Additional funds will be invested to tackle water shortages.
• A digital visa-application service for tourists will be introduced.
• A new industrialization policy to drive economic growth will be finalized this year, while a regulatory framework for critical minerals will be put in place.

—With assistance from Paul Vecchiatto, Monique Vanek, Rivaldo Jantjies, Alister Bull, Arijit Ghosh, Robert Brand and Ana Monteiro.

(Updates with Rubio comment in eighth paragraph.)

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