President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected at the White House at approximately 5.30 pm on Wednesday for a much-anticipated bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Chief Diplomat Ronald Lamola, part of a quartet of Ministers who briefed the President yesterday, confirmed that the delegation was upbeat and looking forward to resetting what he described as a “mutually beneficial relationship”.

The Presidency also remained tight-lipped about a possible meeting with Elon Musk and potential opportunities that might be explored while the billionaire continues to misrepresent the facts around his difficulties in getting a license to operate his internet service, Starlink, in South Africa.

The South African President arrived at the Embassy in Pretoria, all smiles and looking confident, to be briefed by ministers. Then, he took an impromptu walk over to the gathered media to share his thoughts before his meeting with his US counterpart.

“We’re always ready. We hope you two have really good discussions with President Trump and his fellow government colleagues. I’m looking forward to a really good and positive meeting. And we’re looking forward to a very good outcome for our country, for our people, for the jobs in our country and good trade relations, and to normalize relations between our two countries,” says Ramaphosa.

SHERWIN: The economic imperative is the most important here?

“Well, the trade relations, the most important. That’s what has brought us here. We want to come out of the United States with a really good trade deal, investment promotion. We invest in the United States, and they invest in us. And we want to strengthen those relations, and we want to consolidate good relations between our two countries. So I’m very positive.”

Agenda

The agenda is likely to cover a broad range of issues – tariffs and trade in the context of AGOA or a pivot to what might come next; peace efforts in Ukraine and Gaza, the G20 and the importance of multilateralism and on the periphery, addressing misconceptions around South Africa’s domestic laws and policies that have, at times, overshadowed the broader relationship.

Lamola adds, “South Africa is one of the most diverse countries in the world. In fact, it is a constitutional imperative. The issue of diversity and the theme have been accepted and supported by all the members of the G20, except the US. So we also look forward to engaging on this matter even tomorrow [Wednesday] for the US to also participate. As a G20 member, in fact, we are heading over to the USA,” Adding “So, it will be good to participate and also for us to be able to hand over.”

Agriculture

The agriculture export relationship will be key for South Africa come Wednesday.

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen says, “I’m here as Agriculture Minister, and my job is to protect agri jobs in South Africa and to protect our agriculture in South Africa, and to make sure we retain market access, particularly on very key niche issues. And products, wine, citrus, nuts, and table grapes, very, very big exposure to the US market. Although the US only cancels around 7% of our agricultural global exports, it’s very concentrated in those sectors, and towns like Citrus Dell in the Western Cape are almost entirely dependent on access to the US market. So for me, I’m here for one reason, and that is to ensure that we protect our agricultural jobs and our agricultural economy in South Africa by ensuring that we retain access on a favorable basis to a very important market.”

Amid Team South Africa’s behind-the-scenes efforts to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with Elon Musk, the billionaire continues to take issue with the country’s Black Economic Empowerment laws, particularly in the context of Starlink. Musk spoke on this topic at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.

“The whole, whole idea with what Nelson Mandela, who is a great man, proposed was that all races should be on an equal footing in South Africa. That’s the right thing to do, not to replace one set of racist laws with another set of racist laws, which is absolutely wrong and improper. So that’s the deal – that all races should be treated equally, and there should be no preference given to one or the other. Whereas there are now 140 laws in South Africa that basically give strong preference to if you’re a black South African and not otherwise. And so now I’m in the substitute situation where I was born in South Africa, but can’t get a license to operate. Installing because I’m not black,” Musk said.

The scene is set for a day in which South Africa will take centre stage.

The building blocks for this bilateral relationship will likely come down to the rapport struck between the two Presidents when they meet in that place behind me. Remember that this is the beginning of the reset, and what the relationship looks like beyond Wednesday is what the South African delegation is most focused on – read into that a lot of trade and investment.