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Dear reader,

It is one of the most important foreign relations assignments for President Cyril Ramaphosa and certainly the most anticipated since he was elected in May last year. Many will watch how Ramaphosa engages with United Stated president Donald Trump not for the obvious spectacle on offer, but how Ramaphosa defends the thousands of jobs in the auto, citrus and wine industries. Top of mind for many will be how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ordeal in the White House’s Oval Office in late February is an example of the hostile engagement in front of cameras Ramaphosa possibly could face. In international fora, Ramaphosa has managed, with grace and resoluteness, to hold his ground and fight a good cause.

Ahead of the Wednesday meeting though, Trump told reporters on Air Force One this week, when asked about the arrival of Afrikaner “refugees” in Washington: “We treat people very well when we see there’s a genocide going on. So if it’s a genocide, that’s terrible ... South Africa’s out of control.”

The South African government has drawn up a detailed battle plan to counter an onslaught in Washington that it has been told will probably be led by US secretary of state Marco Rubio. In the Sunday Times today, we tell who will be in the room, what they’re likely to contribute, what is at stake and what the battle plan looks like.

In a related story, we dissect the passenger list of the so-called refugees who fled a purported “genocide” for the United States to reveal interesting titbits about the Amerikaners.

Elsewhere, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is engaged in a desperate last-minute cash scramble to prevent its embattled chicken producer, Daybreak Foods, going into liquidation. It is understood a request for R500m in funding from clients the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Compensation Fund (CF) — needed by Friday to avert the finalisation of a liquidation application before the high court in Pretoria — was not successful.

The PIC has appointed a “new board” in a bid to save the dying company. In a letter requesting the funding, seen by the Sunday Times this week, the PIC said that since the last request for cash on May 12, three Daybreak creditors — including Lakat Chicken — had brought an urgent liquidation application, which was set down to be heard on Tuesday. The Sunday Times lets you in on how they plan to rescue the company, some of the questionable characters brought in to help with this mission and how statistics show this firm has become a bottomless pit into which public funds, through the PIC, get gobbled up.

Also, higher education & training minister Nobuhle Nkabane reversed her controversial appointment of chairs of sector education and training authority (Seta) boards after President Cyril Ramaphosa read her the riot act.

Well-placed officials in the government told the Sunday Times yesterday that on Tuesday, immediately after learning Nkabane had appointed controversial ANC cadres to lead at least 22 Setas, Ramaphosa called her and told her this and that which we reveal in detail in the Sunday Times today.

There is this and much more in the Sunday Times today.

Happy reading