Jonas rejected: Ramaphosa’s US envoy backfires - Ivo Vegter

Key topics:Jonas denied visa, barred from acting as envoy to Trump administrationMTN-Iran ties raise legal and diplomatic red flags in the USRamaphosa under fire as SA faces looming 30% US tariffs.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..By Ivo Vegter*.The DA claims SA’s special envoy to Washington is not welcome in the US. Snippy spokespuppets respond by saying mind your own business.It was always going to come to this.In February, Donald Trump cut aid to South Africa, in part because it has “taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements”.In March, Trump booted out South Africa’s former ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, over his public comments that the Trump administration represented a “supremacist insurgency”.Twelve days after the “Liberation Day” tariffs announced by Trump on 2 April, president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he had appointed Mcebisi Jonas as “special envoy” to the US, to act “as the official representative of the President and the government of the Republic of South Africa”.It would be his job “to advance South Africa’s diplomatic, trade and bilateral priorities. He will lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation’s interests.”.The announcement mentioned that Jonas would maintain his private sector role, as chairman of MTN Group.In May, when Ramaphosa visited the White House for a dressing down by the Don, the presidency explained that despite his position as the most senior representative of South Africa in the US, Jonas was not part of the South African delegation “at his own request”.No reason was given why he requested his own exclusion, but the presidency did assert that Jonas had “valid travel documents to the US”. The nature of those documents – whether he held a tourist, business, or diplomatic visa – was not disclosed.MysteryWhy Ramaphosa thought that the Americans would welcome Jonas is a mystery.Having served as MTN Group chairman himself, before being appointed as deputy president by former president Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa cannot possibly have been ignorant of the MTN Group’s close ties to Iran, the as-yet untested allegations of corruption it faces in the South African high court, and the ongoing litigation it faces in a New York court over alleged violations of the US Anti-Terrorism Act..Read more:.FT: SA's new US envoy Mcebisi Jonas seeks to reset strained US–SA ties.A paper released earlier this week by the Middle East Africa Research Institute documents South Africa’s friendly ties with Iran. It lays out the controversies related to MTN’s involvement in that pariah state, and describes the Anti-Terrorism lawsuit it faces:.The suit alleges that the plaintiffs or their family members were injured in a series of terrorist attacks that took place in Iraq and Afghanistan. They allege that the MTN Group did business with Iranian entities that served as fronts for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Hezbollah division, and its external Quds Force. The alleged fronts were named as Bonyad Mostazafan and Iran Electronics Industries. The plaintiffs claim that MTN knew, or recklessly disregarded, that the entities with which it did business were supporting a terrorist campaign that lasted over a decade, and even went so far as to make an official agreement to support the IRGC’s “security” needs, which they claim to be a euphemism for terrorist activities. MTN allegedly provided these Iranian entities with funding, embargoed American technology and equipment, and logistical support.When Jonas was appointed, journalist and author, Nicole Barlow, remarked on this issue, and added that in the 11th annual Ahmed Kathrada Foundation lecture, which Jonas delivered in November 2020, he also insulted Trump, saying: “Right now, the US is undergoing a watershed moment with Joe Biden the certain winner in the presidential race against the racist, homophobe Donald Trump. How we got to a situation where a narcissistic right-winger took charge of the world’s greatest economic and military powerhouse is something that we need to ponder over. It is something that all democracies need to ponder over.”Expecting that such a tainted individual would be an acceptable envoy to the Trump administration was the height of incompetence on the part of Ramaphosa.Whether Ramaphosa likes it or not, a special envoy has to meet a foreign power on their terms. It was abundantly clear that the Trump administration would never talk to someone who had publicly insulted Trump, nor to someone who heads a company with clear ties to, and facing unresolved legal action about aiding, Iran.Where is Mcebisi Jonas?On Monday, Emma Louise Powell, the Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on international relations and cooperation, issued a public statement questioning what Jonas had achieved in the 90 days since his appointment, and threatening to file a Public Access to Information Act request to discover the answer.The statement mentioned his questionable background and MTN’s ties to Iran, and said, “If Mr Jonas is unable to perform his functions as designated by the President, he must urgently be replaced by a suitably qualified interlocutor, whose business interests do not pose a grave conflict of interest.”Vincent Magwenya, the president’s spokesperson, retorted on social media that “[t]he DA is encroaching on the President’s area of responsibility. They have no business in the appointment or work of envoys, including that of Mr Jonas. Envoys are there to support the work of the President.”In other words, “mind your own business, this has nothing to do with you”.Given that Powell is a member of Parliament, and the DA is a member of the Government of National Unity, this blunt dismissal of her request is disgraceful. It is also incorrect. Jonas was appointed as “the official representative of the President and the government of the Republic of South Africa” (my italics).Since the DA is part of that government, questioning Jonas’s work as the government’s envoy is entirely legitimate.If Jonas was indeed conducting his mission adequately, why not just say so?AWOLTwo days later, Powell issued a new statement:With just two weeks to go before the devastating 30% tariffs take effect, the DA can confirm:The United States of America denied Mcebisi Jonas a diplomatic visa in May this year.The US government has formally rejected Jonas’s credentials and has informed the Presidency that he would not be recognised as South Africa’s official interlocutor.The Ramaphosa administration was explicitly advised on multiple occasions, that Jonas was not acceptable to Washington and was urged to appoint an alternative envoy..If true, this is an outrageous failure of international diplomacy. It seems Jonas was absent, without leave to discuss relations between South Africa and the US with US officials.This would be especially embarrassing given that an unofficial delegation representing domestic special interest groups had no apparent trouble making contact with officials of the Trump administration, and returned with a list of demands from the administration to the South African government.Powell’s statement also accused Ramaphosa of lying about the Jonas mission: “In a televised SABC interview in June 2025, despite being fully aware that Jonas had been denied a diplomatic visa by the US and would not be formally received, President Ramaphosa doubled down on national TV, declaring: ‘Mcebisi Jonas is still my North American envoy and has done good work.’”Governments have fallen for less.Non-answerThis time, the public response came from Chrispin Phiri, the spokesperson of the minister of international relations and co-operation, Ronald Lamola. Posting in his personal capacity, he wrote:On Emma Powell latest Statement.Most nations unite under attack and rally behind the flag. In our country, lobby groups, MPs and fringe media platforms are actively campaigning against work being done to protect the economy and the nation’s interests. One wonders if they yearn for a Cold War world order.The tariff issue is not unique to South Africa it’s a worldwide phenomenon which being handled by the Department of Trade Industry and Competition.Emma Powell is the very same person who led a delegation to the USA just before elections which asked another country to force us to change our foreign policy and other policies. Since then negative sentiments towards South Africa have been unrelenting.She was also part of the ill-advised trip with Mr Whitfield. She is also the very same person who was part of trip to Israel that has been rightfully criticised as whitewashing Israel’s conduct.Special Envoys do not get accredited to a country her insistence of non-accreditation is a red-herring. Special envoys are not diplomatic postings and do not require that countries present their credentials. No envoys, including those representing the US president, announce their work and report publicly on what they do..This is, in its entirety, a non-answer.Point 1 is simply incorrect. Powell is not campaigning against work being done to protect the economy and the nation’s interest. She is campaigning for it, by pointing out that the present special envoy is unable to do so.Point 2 is irrelevant, and also wrong, since the special circumstance is that South Africa had its ambassador declared persona non grata in the US, so it had no formal channel for negotiations with the US.Points 3 and 4 are irrelevant and ad hominem. They are “red herrings”, to use Phiri’s own words against him. What Powell did or didn’t do has nothing to do with whether Mcebisi Jonas is in a position to succeed as special envoy to the US.Point 5 is technically correct, since special envoys are not formally recognised as diplomats in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. The position of “envoy” is not the same thing as a “special envoy,” and has become obsolete.However, it fails to answer the question of whether Jonas was granted access to senior White House officials or even junior trade negotiators.Saying that special envoys do not ordinarily report publicly on their work simply hides behind secrecy, which does not become the government of a democratic and open society in which everyone has the constitutional right of access to any information held by the state.Great public concernWith less than two weeks to go before 30% tariffs are to be levied on South Africa’s exports to the US, this isn’t a minor matter over who gets to appoint whom. This is a matter upon which thousands of businesses and millions of livelihoods depend.Whether Mcebisi Jonas has been able to act in the manner expected of him as special envoy to the US is of great public concern. It is not something a snippy spokespuppet can simply shrug off as none of our business and not for the public to know..*Ivo Vegter is a freelance journalist, columnist and speaker who loves debunking myths and misconceptions, and addresses topics from the perspective of individual liberty and free markets..This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission

Jonas rejected: Ramaphosa’s US envoy backfires - Ivo Vegter

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