Ramaphosa to provide ‘timely’ reply to Trump’s five asks

President Cyril Ramaphosa is weighing a crucial reply to Donald Trump’s demands, with US aid, trade preferences, and strained bilateral relations riding on the outcome. President Cyril Ramaphosa is pondering his reply to a message from US President Donald Trump, which could be decisive for the future of South Africa’s fraught relations with the United States. US ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III delivered Trump’s message to Ramaphosa in Pretoria on 26 August. While details of Trump’s message remain sparse, a diplomatic source told Daily Maverick it centres on his “five asks”.

The “five asks” – as Bozell has called them – are roughly that Pretoria must: • Prioritise the protection of farmers from violence; • Condemn the “Kill the Boer” chant as hate speech; • Scrap the expropriation without compensation law; •End the requirement that US investors must surrender ownership of 30% of their businesses to black South Africans under broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) laws; and • Demonstrate that South Africa is really non-aligned globally, as it claims to be, by distancing itself from US enemies such as Iran. Daily Maverick understands that Pretoria believes that much progress has been made in addressing the demands, and that in his reply to Trump, Ramaphosa will point this out. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed that the President would reply to Trump. “I can’t give a timeline. But it will be timely,” he said. Dialogue under way South Africa’s ambassador to the US, Roelf Meyer. (Photo: Deaan Vivier / Gallo Images / Beeld) In an interview with Daily Maverick before leaving for Washington, South Africa’s new ambassador to the US, Roelf Meyer, said Trump’s executive order banning US aid to SA and offering asylum to Afrikaner farmers…