When you’re in trouble with a bully at school and you need to get him off your case, do you: a) yank his chain and call him an idiot; b) find a virile friend to confront him; or c) do the sensible thing and get one of the matrics, the first-team captain perhaps, because you’ve prepared for this possibility, to go talk to the guy?
In our confrontation with US President Donald Trump we have tried “a”, which ended very badly, and we are now trying option “b”, a long shot, which may or may not work. President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed former deputy finance minister and current MTN chair Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to Washington, with a brief to mend relationships with our most valuable trading partner.
Our large trade surplus aside, Trump picks on South Africa to an alarming degree, given the light weight of our presence in the world these days. He accuses the government of conducting genocide against Afrikaner farmers and he hates the fact that we have taken Israel to the International Court of Justice on a charge of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Jonas has had what might best be called an indifferent start to his mission, which follows the expulsion of ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, who was declared persona non grata for insulting Trump. Within hours of the Jonas appointment someone had found a video of him calling Trump a “homophobic racist” and saying “how we got to a situation where a narcissistic right-winger took charge of the world’s greatest economic and military powerhouse is something we need to ponder”.
If once was something to “ponder”, what does twice invite? The entire world is on edge because of Trump, and Jonas’s defenders have been quick to argue his remarks were made five years ago and are a small part of a speech he gave after Trump lost the 2020 election. They argue that lots of people around Trump now, senior people in his cabinet, have insulted him in the past. None of that gets Jonas into a room with Trump, though.
The former critics around Trump’s table are there because they’ve kissed his ass. They’re lickspittles who keep their jobs by constantly praising Trump no matter how demented he becomes. Are Jonas’s defenders arguing he should do the same? Because that’s what it may take. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has said the government doesn’t think Trump will hold a grudge. Well, wild optimism may be useful here but does he not watch the news?
And what would Jonas say if he did get into the Oval Office? What deal has Ramaphosa given him to offer? We tell him white genocide is a lie and he’ll say the genocide story in Gaza is too. And we can’t walk away from the Israel case now.
It’s vital, obviously, that we try to mollify Trump. Enraged, he could shut the country down in a day, and you may have noticed there’s not exactly been a stampede of friends rushing to our side as Trump ramps up his anti-South African rhetoric. Where are the Brics buddies when you need them?
A better choice for the job at hand might have been former president Thabo Mbeki, the matric ‘senior’ in my opening
A better choice for the job at hand might have been former president Thabo Mbeki, the matric “senior” in my opening. Mbeki can talk to Afrikaners in a way Ramaphosa can’t any more because he isn’t trusted. And Mbeki’s status as a former president might persuade Trump to at least feel he was being treated with the requisite gravity.
But there are problems. First, Ramaphosa and Mbeki despise each other. Second, everything Jonas has written since leaving the government in 2017 has been aspirational and visionary. I think he may see himself as a possible Ramaphosa successor at the head of the ANC or the state in 2027 and 2029.
His new role is a test. If he passes it and gets Trump off South Africa’s back, does that make him, him in Ramaphosa’s eyes, a viable successor candidate?
There’s fierce tension at the top of the ANC now as the government of national unity contorts itself over the issues of VAT and whether the DA will remain in it. Is Jonas a small part of the solution? Will he be compromised by a trickle of rumours of shady cellphone tower contracts at MTN?
Deputy President Paul Mashatile has used the government of national unity crisis to run a campaign to cement his succession. He wants the DA out but Ramaphosa clearly understands it needs to remain part of the government, despite its refusal to support a VAT increase.
It may help Trump to understand the power he could have over South Africa’s future if he saw Jonas as a possible future president. And that the alternative, Mashatile, would happily have a prancing, gun-toting, kill-the-white-farmer-singing Julius Malema as his deputy president.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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