Pretoria needs US reset, says minister
Semafor · · g964137
DA’s Dean Macpherson’s conciliatory tone exposes a rift with ANC coalition partner over how to handle Washington.
South Africa needs to reset its relationship with the US, a senior member of Pretoria’s governing coalition said in an interview, describing Washington’s demands as “fairly straightforward.”
Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson’s comments suggest a more conciliatory stance than has often come from Pretoria, pointing to a measure of distance within the government between the African National Congress and Macpherson’s Democratic Alliance.
Macpherson said anyone who thought Africa’s biggest economy could do without the US was “misguided.” He said the issue must be handled “carefully and strategically,” warning that failure could put South Africa’s benefits under AGOA at risk and cause relations to deteriorate further. “I don’t believe the vast majority of South Africans would want to see that happen,” he said.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington remain strained , particularly after the US imposed visa restrictions on unspecified South African officials. The Trump administration has pressed South Africa over its Black Economic Empowerment rules and laws that allow the state to take land without compensation in some circumstances.
South Africa, meanwhile, has been pitching mining deals to US companies , betting that business-to-business relationships will transcend fractured political ties.
Macpherson’s comments offer a glimpse of how the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in the coalition, differs in its outlook to the African National Congress. The DA draws much of its support from white voters and has long been cast by rivals as a party of white interests.
Black Economic Empowerment laws and land reform laws aim to redress apartheid-era dispossession that left Black South Africans excluded from the economy and from land ownership. Three decades after apartheid, South Africa remains the world’s most unequal society , according to the World Bank. White South Africans, who make up about 7% of the population, own most private farmland.
Speaking in Washington at an African Diaspora Forum earlier this month, foreign minister Ronald Lamola called the US resettlement program for white South Africans “Apartheid 2.0” and warned South Africans to prepare for a worst case scenario in relations. He softened his tone on Friday, telling Reuters that Pretoria did not want a “tit-for-tat war” with Washington. Still, the divergence suggests the two biggest parties in the coalition remain at odds over how to handle Washington.
The DA joined the ANC in a coalition government in 2024. The move followed the ANC’s loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time. Macpherson said investors frequently ask about the country’s politics, and he tells them coalition rule is now “normal” in South Africa, as it has been in parts of Europe. With local government elections weeks away, he said he expects more coalitions to form across the country.
His trip to Dubai is aimed at closing South Africa’s infrastructure funding gap . The government has set aside 1 trillion rand ($60 billion) over the next three years, but Macpherson said a further 1.6 trillion rand in private sector funding is needed “to bridge the gap between our objectives and our realities.”