Emma Powell: SA hurtles towards disaster as Cyril’s special US envoy is denied entry

With just two weeks to go before 30% tariffs are likely to come into effect on the 1st of August, it has emerged that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Special Envoy Mcebisi Jonas has not even been able to get into the US because his diplomatic visa was denied and his credentials rejected. In this interview with BizNews, Emma Powell, the Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, warns that South Africa is “hurtling towards disaster at a rapid rate” while “once again, the “Presidency and the President's Envoy are missing in action”. Powell charges that President Cyril Ramaphosa is most likely saving face by retaining this Special Envoy despite the diplomatic visa having been rejected, despite the US having informed the Presidency that they will not engage with Jonas. “So, it's my contention here that President Ramaphosa is more invested in saving face than he is in acting in the national interest in ensuring that we get a deal across the line by the 1st of August.” Powell examines the possible reasons for the US’ rejection of Jonas, as well his appointment in the first place. Meanwhile, she warns, “hundreds of thousands of jobs are on the line”..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here: .Listen here:.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.966)First, South Africa's ambassador to the United States got kicked out, and now its Special Envoy is not allowed in. We get the details from Emma Powell, the Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation. Good morning, Emma. Emma (00:20.555)Morning, thanks for having me. Chris Steyn (00:23.138)You're welcome. So how long ago already was Mr. Mcebisi Jonas denied a diplomatic visa? Emma (00:31.118)Well, according to our sources from the US administration, this diplomatic visa was denied in May. Subsequently, government applied for credentialing, which would empower Mr. Jonas to engage in formal bilateral negotiations on behalf of our sitting head of State, Cyril Ramaphosa. And according to my sources in Washington, those have also been rejected and returned. We know from the Presidency's own admission and his statement of last night that, according to Mr. Ramaphosa, he has no need for his Special Envoy to the United States to in fact be in the United States, which is fairly astonishing. And one wonders exactly what is going on behind the scenes because the Presidency has indeed been aware of this for many months. and has not made any effort to appoint an acceptable interlocutor to DC or to appoint a replacement ambassador following Ibrahim Rasool's expulsion from the United States. Chris Steyn (01:43.278)So if he's not welcome in the United States, how could he possibly have any influence on that administration? Emma (01:49.986)Well, this is the question. This is the big question, Chris. So on Monday, I released a media statement marking the 90 day anniversary of Mr. Mcebisi Jonas's appointment. And I asked the question, where is Mr. Jonas? We said in that media statement that we would be submitting a Promotion of Access to Information Act request, which would legally compel the Presidency to provide information to the DA and therefore the country as to exactly where Mr. Jonas was and had been doing to firstly resolve some of the very concerning tariffs issues. We know that the… 30% tariffs will come into effect on the 1st of August. In the automotive sector, we know that we're going to get a 25% tariff. And despite multiple Parliamentary questions that I've submitted to the Department of Trade and Industry, to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, and to the Presidency, myself and my colleagues have been unable to ascertain what exactly is being done to strike a deal and to resolve some of the tensions in the United States. It was of course following that statement that some of our contacts in the United States government reached out to us to tell us in fact, not only had Mr. Jonas as Ramaphosa’s Envoy not been engaging formally or bilaterally, but that in fact his diplomatic visa had been rejected. We now have two weeks to go until these devastating tariffs take effect. According to information that I have available, very little has been done to present a proposal to the US Trade Representative Ambassador Greer, other than a very short meeting that took place in Washington in May. And very little else is being done to resolve some of the deadlock issues that the Trump administration has raised, which include, of course, concerns around Expropriation Without Compensation, BEE, the song, Kill the Boer, and some of the other issues. Emma (04:07.322)We know that the only minister that really has produced a tangible result so far has been Minister Solly Malatse in terms of promulgating regulations that will allow Starlink to operate or Starlink and other telecoms companies to operate in South Africa with an equity equivalent. And we know that Minister Steenhuisen as Minister for Agriculture is hard at work resolving some of the agriculture specific trade irritants, but we are hurtling towards disaster at a rapid rate. And once again, the Presidency and the President's envoys are missing in action. Chris Steyn (04:42.318)So diplomatically speaking, there is no one leading the charge currently to try and repair relations with the United States, or am I mistaken? Emma (04:52.142)To my knowledge, you are correct. We do not have an Ambassador in Washington, D.C. who is empowered. We know now that our President's Special Envoy to the United States has in fact not been in the United States, nor has that Special Envoy been negotiating on behalf of our Head of State. We are unable to ascertain exactly what DTIC, that's Minister Park Tau’s Department, the Department of Trade and Industry, is doing. Yesterday I received a raft of responses to Parliamentary questions, very broad brushstrokes, very scant on details. What we know is that the United States require three things from us. They require South Africa to urgently resolve a number of what they call trade irritants. These are specifically in areas relating to, for example, pork and a number of other refined sectors. We know that South Africa needs to engage more thoroughly and honestly on some of the more political concerns. We would call those non-tariff, non-trade barriers. And we know that the United States in regards to President Donald Trump's America First Trade Policy, wants South Africa to present a competitive deal where the US has offered the same terms of access to our markets that the European Union and China do. Right now, Chris, we're not sure that anything of any substantive nature is being done and the jury's up. We've got two weeks to go until the 1st of August. It's of course not with any level of glee that we draw our sword in the manner that we do. We do not delight in releasing statements like this that cause antagonism and upset within the government of national unity. But unfortunately, we can't sit in our hands. We can't sit pretty. We know that President Ramaphosa is most likely saving face by retaining this Special Envoy despite diplomatic visas having been rejected, despite the US having informed the Presidency that they will not engage with Mr. Jonas. So it's my contention here that… Emma (07:17.626)President Ramaphosa is more invested in saving face than he is in acting in the national interest in ensuring that we get a deal across the line by the 1st of August. And it's the poorest people of this nation that will once again pay the price. Chris Steyn (07:31.694)Yeah. And instead of appointing somebody, he acted as though, as if though Mr. Jonas was hard at work. Emma (07:39.918)Well, this is the thing. We've been asking questions, we've been having conversations behind closed doors, and it got to the point with two weeks to go that we had to publicly say something. Now, the first response to my statement of Monday where I had asked the question, where is Mr. Jonas, and where I had announced that I would be submitting a Promotion of Access to Information, a PAIA Act application would be submitted to the Presidency to DTIC and to DIRCO, compelling government to provide the nation with the full details of negotiations to date. The response to that statement from the Presidency was the DA is, and I quote, encroaching on the powers and the prerogative of the President, and we have no right to be asking such questions. Then I was...provided with information from the United States in regards to the actual status of Mr. Jonas as Special Envoy. We now know he has not been in the United States. He is not engaging. And as I say, it was absolutely astonishing that the Presidency was so triggered that they released a media statement accusing myself and the party I represent in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance, of disinformation and misinformation. Going on to say that, in fact, President Cyril Ramaphosa did not need his Special Envoy to be in the United States because he was advising behind the scenes. Now, perhaps it would have been smarter and wiser for the president to have appointed Mr. Jonas, who I'm sure is a very competent man, as a domestic advisor. His Special Envoy to the United States should be in the United States operating from the embassy on a day-to-day basis, seeking meetings, seeking deals, speaking to interlocutors, advisors and counterparts, brokering deals like we know many nations who've been hit with the potential …. tariffs have been doing and everything in his power to get a deal across the line. We're incredibly concerned and I remain unrattled by the responses of the Presidency until the Presidency can either refute my allegations that Jonas was in fact denied a diplomatic visa and provide proof of that diplomatic visa… Emma (10:00.27)…or provide a schedule of meetings that have been taking place in Washington, D.C. or provide the nation with any level of assurance, guarantee and comfort that tangible negotiations are underway and a deal is close, I’m going to stick to my side of the story. Chris Steyn (10:18.82)I suppose this makes sense of the fact that Mr. Jonas was not with President Cyril Ramaphosa in Washington. Emma (10:28.248)Well, we know that during that visit to the White House, the Presidency's spokesperson and the Foreign Minister's spokesperson…respectively, had said on social media, they'd alluded to there having been visa issues. Then again, in a televised interview on the 10th of June on SABC, President Cyril Ramaphosa, when asked about this said that Mr Jonas remains his Envoy, but there was some quote unquote visa issue. So they had in fact alluded to this. And the bottom line is that as Head of State, President Cyril Ramaphosa has a duty to act in his nation's best interests, not in the best interests of his political party or cadres of the ANC. Now they knew back then in May that Mr Jonas was not welcome. What we don't know, Chris, is what the reason for that is. And it's an interesting question and it's something that we are indeed looking into. Now, we understand that very similar to the previous ambassador, Ibrahim Rasool, who whilst ambassador made some very egregious, unbecoming and insulting remarks on a webinar, we know that back in 2020, Mr. Jonas had made some remarks that one could consider as being insulting towards President Donald Trump. But more curiously is the fact that Mr. Jonas is the independent non-executive director, or sorry, Chairperson rather, independent non-executive Chairperson of the MTN group. Now MTN is currently defending some very serious litigation in the United States, class action lawsuits, in fact, that allege that MTN had colluded with strategic adversaries of the United States, specifically in this matter Afghanistan, including the Taliban, and is a class action lawsuit that MTN is defending. There are some other lawsuits that are also coming before those courts and very soon before South African courts in regards to… Emma (12:48.428)…the MTN Iran Turkcell, it was the Iran cell deal that Turkcell is obviously challenging. And potentially there is a conflict of interest here in terms of as South Africa's Special Envoy in terms of negotiating with the US government, maybe there's a conflict of interest that he's also chairperson of MTN and subject to… Emma (13:12.6)….,class action lawsuits in the United States. I don't know what the reason is. We will be looking into that aspect further in coming days as well. Chris Steyn (13:20.644)Well, the Presidency would have been aware of these links all along. Yet they appointed him. Emma (13:27.862)Absolutely, and it would be my contention that we have so many suitably qualified, highly skilled, trained business people in this country. And it goes to the heart of the ANC's cadre deployment policy. Instead of appointing somebody who was independent, who had a neutral reputation in the public or in the private sector, who would be able to do this job with distinction, once again, it's an ex ANC minister, very close to the presidency. Of course, President Ramaphosa was the chairperson of MTN at the time that that Iran cell deal took place. Reins were passed over to Mr. Jonas. Mr. Jonas subsequently appointed as interlocutor in the United States. Certainly not casting aspersions or making any allegations. What I'm doing is raising question marks. Right now, the primary concern, however, remains striking a deal with the United States. We've got two weeks to do that. And it would be my contention that if back in May, the Presidency and DTIC were in fact aware that Mr. Jonas would not be so welcome in Washington, DC for whatever reason, it was incumbent in my view on the Presidency to appoint somebody who would be accepted. We know that, for example, in the automotive sector, Eastern Cape, certain parts of Gauteng, that our automotive industry may in fact be decimated by these 25% tariffs. And there are, of course, concomitant supply chains that exist because of the markets, the automotive market or sector that's been built up in South Africa because of the AGOA benefits. There are concomitant supply chains to other parts of the world, including the European Union, that would of course be impacted as well if we were to see our automotive industry collapse in part or in whole. Hundreds of thousands of jobs on the line. Then in the Western Cape here where the DA governs, we know that the agriculture sector, wine, citrus exports are also going to be a hard hit. And we can afford job losses given that South Africa already has… Emma (15:47.084)…the highest unemployment rates in the world. We have the highest Gini coefficients, efficiency rate, that's the income inequality metric. And so one would think that given that our single focus and our most important prerogative as a nation and as public representatives of South Africa is to grow the economy and to create jobs, the political considerations would not come into play in terms of appointing the right people to broker the. negotiations and to lead the talks and that absolutely everything would be going into resolving this issue. The Presidency can, of course, continue to refute the claims of the Democratic Alliance, but until such times they're able to provide empirical evidence that dispels our allegations, we're certainly going to stick to our side of the story. We're certainly going to keep the pressure on because we've got two weeks to go and we'll know what the outcome is on the 1st of August. It certainly as a patriotic South African, my sincere hope that despite this, once again, this road bump for this speed bump that we've hit that somehow we're able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and strike a deal, but the jury's out and the clock's ticking. Chris Steyn (18:18.126)Thank you. That was Emma Powell, the Democratic Alliance spokesperson for International Relations and Cooperation speaking to BizNews. And I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Emma. Emma (18:29.176)Thank you.

Emma Powell: SA hurtles towards disaster as Cyril’s special US envoy is denied entry

Related Stories

Ivo Vegter: Ramaphosa's land deed promise is a good start, but it doesn't offer true ownership

Recces, a rendition and a dead Hawk: the Mathipa murder that has the state at war with itself

GBV suspects on the run | Barry Bateman

How world sees us: SA at risk of becoming a mafia state