By AGISANANG SCUFF
16 July 2025- The Presidency said it cautions South Africa against treating Democratic Alliance (DA) ‘disinformation’ on matters of international relations and diplomacy as official government policy. This comes after DA’s allegations that Mcebisi Jonas, who was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to restore working relations with the US government, has so far received a cold-shoulder.
However, Ramaphosa spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya said the DA’s latest effort to embarrass Ramaphosa’s Special Envoy to North America, Jonas Mcebisi, involves claims – in the DA’s framing – that the United States has rejected Jonas’s “credentials” and that Jonas is therefore unable to perform his role as Special Envoy. Magwenya said the DA seeks to add sensationalism to its claim by suggesting Ramaphosa and Jonas face a crisis in view of the United States’ pending implementation of trade tariffs announced several days ago by President Donald Trump.
“The facts around this matter include the reality that Special Envoys do not present diplomatic credentials to host countries in the way designated Heads of Mission or other diplomats are. While envoys are not required to account publicly for the work they undertake, the President’s own accounts of his performance include elements facilitated by envoys.
“Jonas’s outreach does not in any way supersede the leading role played by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in our difficult, but constructive trade negotiations with the United States, or in our diplomatic relations with this long standing partner,” he said.
Magwenya further said Jonas has, however, played an important role in working with the DTIC to develop the trade proposals in which South Africa is currently engaging the United States in good faith and with the expectation of mutually beneficial terms. He added that, similarly, he has been assisting DIRCO in the government’s efforts to reset diplomatic relations and all areas of cooperation between South Africa and the United States.
“While these processes are underway and in view of Ramaphosa’s telephonic contact with Trump as well as his Working Visit to Washington in May 2025, Ramaphosa has not had a need for Jonas to visit the United States on urgent business.
“The Presidency is therefore concerned about the Democratic Alliance’s persistent campaign against South Africa’s national interest and its posture of trying to embarrass and belittle our country and in this specific circumstance, Jonas,” said Magwenya.
He said this campaign has its origins in a Democratic Alliance visit to the United States earlier this year, to advance an ideological agenda rather than their national interest. Magwenya said the DA has positioned itself as part of a right-wing nexus that seeks to use a foreign state to effect changes to democratically developed national policies in their own country.
“The DA is trying cheaply, but dangerously to exploit a critical engagement between South Africa and the United States to protest Ramaphosa’s removal of Andrew Whitfield as Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.
“The DA’s pronouncements and insults against countries and international organisations – such as the Republic of Cuba or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees – offends South Africa’s international relations and posture. If the DA were to succeed in undermining South Africa relations with various nations or institutions, the party would harm the viability of businesses and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of South Africans who work in sectors that depend on the expansion of our trade relations with the world,” he said.
The Guardian 