Ramaphosa 'disappointed' by Trump's continued disregard for diplomatic channels

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is disappointed by US President Donald Trump’s continued disregard for the use of diplomatic channels.

This comes after Trump on Friday signed an executive order cutting all funding to South Africa over the Expropriation Act and the country's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Trump also declared that a plan will be unfolded to relocate Afrikaners to the US as they were being oppressed in South Africa.

Ramaphosa, through his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, told TimesLIVE that Pretoria was essentially unaware of the looming executive order.

“The absence of basic diplomatic courtesies is rather disappointing. First, it is not unreasonable to expect that a country that you have established diplomatic, political, trade and cultural ties with, will at the very least engage over issues of concern before reaching ill-informed conclusions and decisions,” said Magwenya.

“Second, dispatching a formal notification of these decisions ahead of their announcement would have been a courteous thing to do.”

He said Trump had done this despite Ramaphosa stating he was ready to engage with the US.

“South Africa has always had differing viewpoints with the US over certain issues, like we do with other trade and political partners, however we have never had such an escalation of diplomatic tensions, that are mainly escalating from the one side of the relationship,” said Magwenya.

Since taking over as the US president, Trump has zoomed into the affairs of South Africa this week, voicing what he says are concerns over the Expropriation Act that Ramaphosa signed into law.

He said the country under Ramaphosa was doing “very bad things” and that there was confiscation of private properties — a claim not backed up with any proof.

Ramaphosa used his state of the nation address this week to send a strong message to Trump and Rwandan President Paul Kagame that South Africa will not cower to attempts to bully it.

“As the president stated during his state of the nation address, we are not going to be deterred or bullied. We are also not going to lose focus from what we have to do and achieve as a country,” said Magwenya.

“After fighting for more than three centuries against colonial and apartheid exclusion, we will forge ahead to continue building an inclusive nation, embracing and leveraging the strengths of our diversity and growing an inclusive economy for a nation that works for all.”

Though South Africa remained committed to having talks with the US, it had become clear that the US had more problems with the country than previously stated.

“It is now abundantly clear that the issues in dispute are no longer confined to the signing of the Expropriation Act. Other issues have since emerged,” said Magwenya.

“Our stance against the genocidal state of Israel and subsequent action taken at the ICJ, our G20 theme of 'Equality, Solidarity and Sustainability', seems to have angered some in Washington. The imminent relocation of the Taiwanese liaison office has also been flagged. All of these issues have also been laced with complete lies and distortions about our country.”

Magwenya was speaking to TimesLIVE just moments after landing at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Tanzania where Ramaphosa is attending a special Sadc and East Affrican Community meeting of heads of state over the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

TimesLIVE