President Cyril Ramaphosa says US President Donald Trump has “disdain” for protocol, so much so that Pretoria has now decided to confront Washington head-on, with highly placed sources saying Ramaphosa had grown tired of trying to reason with a “bully”.
In a move that is likely to collapse the tariff and trade negotiations and further strain diplomatic relations between South Africa and the US, the Sunday Times can reveal that Ramaphosa’s administration has given up on trying to fix its relationship with the Trump administration and has decided to “stand up to the bully”, regardless of the repercussions to follow.
Senior government officials at the Union Buildings are adamant that whatever punishment is meted out to South Africa, it would be “short-lived pain”, and that it would be worth it to stamp SA’s authority in the geopolitical arena.
Trump announced a few days ago that South Africa will not be allowed to participate in G20 programmes in 2026, including the leader’s summit, which the US is to host in Miami, Florida.
In a move that sources in Pretoria say they had anticipated, Trump attacked South Africa’s G20 presidency, especially after the leaders’ summit had adopted a declaration despite his warning against it.
Trump went as far as saying South Africa does not deserve to be part of the G20 but several countries, including Western European allies, have come out in defence of South Africa, which they say was a founding member of the G20.
Ramaphosa, speaking through his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, told the Sunday Times that Trump’s actions cannot go unchallenged.
“The world cannot allow this brazen disdain for rules and established norms of diplomatic engagements. The general disregard for rules is even being challenged in the US. Now, it’s being brought to global multilateral platforms. It can’t go unchallenged in global fora,” Ramaphosa said.
“And you can’t allow a precedent where this becomes acceptable regardless of where it emanates from.”
There’s not going to be any soft response to this because for the longest time we’ve been measured in our response against lies, we’ve been measured in our response against attempts to humiliate the president when he was making an effort to reset the relationship.
According to the sources: “The sense from Pretoria is that regardless of the consequences, it’s time to stand up to the bully and there is an understanding and an appreciation that whatever follows is going to be short term-pain – and in resisting the bullying, there’s long-term gain”.
South Africa will stop being “measured” in its response against the onslaught from the White House as Trump’s actions “have now ignited the fighting spirit that the country used to confront and defeat the apartheid regime”.
“And even against the mighty US we will resist, as we resisted against the might of colonialists, so that’s what the US is triggering out of us now. It doesn’t mean that because of state power in the past three decades [that] we’ve lost that resistance DNA in us,” said the source.
“We’re going to resist this, understanding that resistance will invite some form of pain, but we also know that that pain is short-term.
“There’s not going to be any soft response to this because for the longest time we’ve been measured in our response against lies, we’ve been measured in our response against attempts to humiliate the president when he was making an effort to reset the relationship.”
Sources say Pretoria has accepted that the relationship at the highest level of political leadership cannot be rescued.
“What we are looking at now are functional aspects of the relationship; business to business, ensuring that US businesses feel welcomed in South Africa, the environment is conducive for their investment, our engagement with the American civil society must continue, people to people exchanges must continue.”
We are accepting the reality that at the highest level of political leadership nothing can be done, it is what it is, but we will stand up for our sovereignty and we will resist any attempt to reduce us into anything else other than what we are: a constitutional democratic state.
“But we are accepting the reality that at the highest level of political leadership nothing can be done, it is what it is, but we will stand up for our sovereignty and we will resist any attempt to reduce us into anything else other than what we are: a constitutional democratic state.”
Meanwhile, an insider in the US embassy said that Washington was likely to walk back its decision not to invite South Africa, given the backlash it will receive from its allies in Europe. They said while Trump will be intent on seeing out his decision to ban South Africa from participating in the G20 during his presidency in 2026, Trump’s advisors would be able to persuade him against it.
“What is likely to happen is that [US] secretary [of state Marco] Rubio and the others will convince him that we need to take a different course. But they will be able to dangle a carrot, and that carrot is the minister [of international relations and co-operation, Ronald Lamola]. They can convince him to say ‘let’s still include South Africa, but with limited participation, and if the president sees it fit, we can declare Mr Lamola persona non grata because of his actions’.”
Lamola’s comments during a CNN interview two weeks ago that the Trump administration was pursuing white supremacy have not gone down well with the administration, and he may serve as collateral damage, according to an insider.
A Presidency official in Pretoria said if the White House were to ban Lamola from attending its foreign ministers’ meetings and the G20 leaders’ summit, it would be pitting Ramaphosa against his minister.
“But more importantly, you are pitting the president against his party. Ronald is a senior ranking member of the ANC. He is the minister of foreign affairs, and if Trump says come to the G20 but come without your minister, he is dividing the political leadership of the country.
“Two things may happen: the president may say the deputy minister can go, or we must be there in case the biggest fight is at the sherpa level. If our sherpa and sous-sherpas participate, they can push hard to get everyone behind key thematic issues that we want to sustain from the South Africa-led G20 to the US-led G20. That for us will be a win, whether Ronald and the president [are] there or not.
“But if they decide to ban Ronald, it’s going to put the president in a very difficult position where he may end up not wanting to be subjected to it because the ANC will rally behind Ronald, and it would work perfectly for Ronald’s political ambitions and elevate him. So the president will have to consider the domestic implications and what his detractors will say in reaction to this.”
The Sunday Times understands that the US business chamber has shown support for South Africa, going so far as to ask for a meeting with Ramaphosa after the G20 summit. Ramaphosa was unable to attend the meeting, which was expected to be attended by the 600 US companies operating in South Africa.
A Presidency official said that the meeting was planned for the US Thanksgiving weekend; however, Ramaphosa fell ill with flu upon his return from Angola. The Sunday Times understands that Ramaphosa’s special adviser for investment promotion, Alistair Ruiters, attended the dinner meeting on his behalf.
Another insider said that trade relations between the two countries are likely to suffer from the standoff. However, Pretoria was still hopeful that US officials currently engaged in the negotiations would be able to put forward a plan that would be favourable to Trump.
“Trade negotiations are taking place at a civil servants’ level, and those discussions are far more rational than the public spats that are coming out of Washington, and that to us is a functional aspect of the relationship that we need to focus on.”
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