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In an effort to ease growing diplomatic tensions with the United States, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Monday, April 14, 2025, appointed former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as the country’s special envoy to Washington. Jonas, widely respected for his anti-corruption stance, will lead South Africa’s diplomatic and trade efforts in the U.S. at a time when relations between the two countries have significantly deteriorated.
The appointment follows a series of escalating diplomatic clashes with Washington since the re-election of Donald Trump, whose second presidency has taken a sharply confrontational tone toward Pretoria. In March, the Trump administration expelled South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, citing “deeply inappropriate” public remarks about U.S. foreign policy. The move stunned Pretoria and marked a rare diplomatic expulsion between the two democracies.
President Ramaphosa’s office described Jonas’s new role as one of “critical strategic importance,” and said that the envoy’s mandate is to realign and protect South Africa’s diplomatic, trade, and bilateral interests amid mounting geopolitical pressure.
Ties between the two nations have frayed sharply in recent months. Trump has taken a hard stance on South Africa’s Expropriation Bill, a new law that permits land seizures without compensation in cases where such actions serve the public interest. The U.S. president has cited the policy as the primary reason for his decision to skip the G20 Summit scheduled for later this year in Cape Town.
Further aggravating relations was South Africa’s legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza, a case that has drawn both praise and condemnation globally. Trump condemned the move, accusing South Africa of “choosing sides in a conflict it doesn’t understand.”
Mcebisi Jonas is no stranger to high-stakes political battles. In 2016, while serving as deputy finance minister, Jonas became a household name when he revealed that members of the influential Gupta family had offered him a bribe of 600 million rand (roughly $31 million at the time) to accept the role of finance minister and further their business agenda. The revelation, which Jonas publicly disclosed, became one of the most explosive testimonies in the country’s sprawling state capture scandal that ultimately led to the downfall of President Jacob Zuma.
Jonas’s refusal to bow to pressure, and his admission that he was later threatened with death if he spoke out, earned him widespread public respect. The Gupta family, with deep ties to Zuma, has consistently denied the allegations. Zuma, too, has dismissed all corruption claims against him.
Jonas’s credibility and moral standing were further cemented during his role as one of four presidential investment envoys appointed in 2018. In that role, he worked to restore investor confidence in a post-Zuma era, engaging multinational corporations and foreign governments to attract capital into South Africa’s ailing economy.
As special envoy, Jonas will be tasked with more than just mending bruised diplomatic ties. His office will serve as a liaison not only with the U.S. government but also with American business leaders, think tanks, and civil society groups. According to Ramaphosa’s statement, Jonas will “engage across political and economic divides to safeguard South Africa’s national interest.”
He is expected to retain his current position as non-executive chairman of MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecommunications firm, a post that analysts say gives him added gravitas in transnational business circles.
In recent months, Ramaphosa hinted at plans to dispatch senior envoys to several key global partners, part of a broader initiative to reposition South Africa diplomatically amid growing geopolitical uncertainty. The U.S. appointment, however, is the first to be publicly confirmed.
Analysts see Jonas’s appointment as a pivotal moment in South African diplomacy. “Jonas embodies the reformist, clean-governance agenda that Ramaphosa has tried to project,” said Sipho Moyo, a Johannesburg-based political analyst. “But he’s stepping into a firestorm. Trump’s foreign policy doesn’t favor nuance.”
South Africa’s Foreign Ministry has yet to confirm when Jonas will travel to Washington, but sources close to the presidency say preparations are already underway for high-level engagements in Washington, D.C., and New York.
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