By any definition South Africa is a failed state with a “governing capacity unable to fulfil the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources…” Opinion.
When Trump hosts the President of South Africa, there could be a ‘Zelensky slap down
Ramaphosa is likely to ‘pull a fast one’ by presenting his special envoy who personifies what Congress and the White House abhor about his policies and allies.
Since 2018 when President Ramaphosa replaced a traitor wedded to eight wives, there have been no less than 450 political assassinations. These involved competition for positions in the ruling party, the African National Congress. The country has a murder rate on a par with gang-run Ecuador, but your chances of being gunned down is many times greater, if you compete in local government elections.
At bottom, the Ramaphosa ‘regime’ – a grimy relic of legendary Nelson Mandela’s rule – amounts to allocating patronage. In a country where fully half the black population has no job, and murder goes under the radar, killing for one is a payable venture, even before factoring in that with a government job comes power to award tenders to cronies.
“Gangster State” the title of a book on these breathtaking shenanigans, is not hyperbole.
“People join the ANC not because they want to help people, but to pursue business opportunities,” admits a party official. The Pretoria High Court, summing up a rare prosecution of tender rigging, could easily have been referring to Ramaphosa’s cronies:
“What is most disturbing is the total lack of dignity and shame by people in leadership positions who abuse public funds with naked greed for their own benefit without a moment’s consideration of the circumstances of fellow citizens who live in absolute squalor throughout the country with no basic services.”
Enter the special envoy, hand-picked by the President to repair rock bottom relations between Pretoria and Washington. “Mr Mcebisi Jonas,” he announced grandly, “is entrusted with the responsibility to advance South Africa’s diplomatic, trade and bilateral priorities. He will lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships, and engage with US government special officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation’s interests.”
“Entrusted”: given the special envoy’s modest accomplishments, that’s a bold gambit. In a country where no fewer than 142 laws make white skin a detriment and black skin the real deal, Mr Jonas is a product of the legal framework’s anti-white cacophony. In labour law tight quotas for non-blacks are called ‘employment equity’ while ‘transformation’ means making a crime of hiring too many workers of the wrong colour without prior authority.
For going up the pecking order in Ramaphosa’s helter-skelter governance by clueless cadres, there are two qualifications: black skin and loyalty. His special envoy is a cadre deluxe.
Mr Jonas holds a BA in History and Sociology (from a private university) and a Higher Diploma in Education. Prior to his loyal political ‘career’ he was an ‘educator’.
Not much of a résumé for a Chairman of multi-national telecom giant MTN with assets of R435 billion ($24 billion) and a division in Iran. President Trump should keep his profile handy for when the special envoy pitches up in Washington to “lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government special officials and private-sector leaders.”
“There is a great deal of ruin in a nation” said Adam Smith, the 18th century founder of economics. It was as if he foresaw Ramaphosa’s blatant policies for reducing ordinary South Africans to penury in the course of making loyal comrades quick billionaires.
Deconstructing this patronage comedy, the Institute of Race Relations had this to say about the disingenuous centrepiece named, Black Economic Empowerment:
“BEE punishes businesses that don’t hire ‘enough’ black people. But instead of helping those who are out of work, the policy has “lined the pockets of fat cats. Let’s call BEE for what it is – Blatant Elite Enrichment.”
It is quite astounding that big business did not have to be punished. Every sector from banking to supermarkets to law firms to health service to call centres, embraced racial hiring with glee. It is no accident that corporate HR departments are uniformly black. A candidate’s qualifications for the job is merely icing on top of the required racial or DEI profile. Such is the core terminal sickness of an economy heading to hell in a handbasket.
Meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, Ramaphosa is likely to assure him and the inner circle that South Africa is not a rogue state. He may refer to the constitution. He may boast that the country is governed by the rule of law. So it is – now and then.
When Ramaphosa replaced Jacob Zuma as head of state, the rule of law bit its proverbial tongue. For years he’d been Deputy President, observing Zuma auction off public assets, even whole functions of government, to Indian brothers – illegal immigrants at that. By keeping quiet Ramaphosa was complicit in State Capture, a capital crime. Yet the ‘rule of law’ sat by when he was declared head of state. Even a former president admitted that “people involved in treason are in the government.” As for Zuma, far from receiving a life sentence for treason, he went on to head the majority party in the province of KwaZulu Natal – despite instigating violent sabotage of infrastructure and business in that province.
In short, the rule of law is spasmodic. And like everything else, biased according to skin colour. The Equality Court judged that a political chant going, “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” was permitted speech. Rule of law? It would be a simpler thing to cultivate orchids on a trash dump than maintain rule of law in a country run by criminals for criminals.
US Congressman Ronny Jackson tore into this outrageous governance in supporting the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025. It would review the bilateral relationship between the US and South Africa. Jackson’s office said the bill “Will help advance US President Trump’s foreign policy agenda by giving him the tools necessary to impose sanctions on South African officials who support America’s adversaries.”
It also hones in on Ramaphosa’s derelict if not criminal government. “The ANC-led Government’s history of substantially mismanaging a range of state resources and often being “proven incapable of effectively delivering public services, threatening the South African people and the economy.”
By any definition South Africa is a failed state with a “governing capacity unable to fulfil the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal services.”
The special envoy is symptomatic of the rot. Anti-white to his bones, Jonas had slammed President Trump “a racist homophobe” and a “narcissistic right-winger”. One could logically add that, as an acolyte of antisemitic Ramaphosa and as Chairman of pro-Iran MTN, Jonas is a Jew-hating, Hamas supporter.
MTN is also in the line of fire of complainants in a US case against it. The company and subsidiaries, it has been alleged, violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act by providing material support to known terrorist organisations. Parties are seeking damages on behalf of American soldiers and civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017. ON top, Jonas finds himself enmeshed in a bribery and corruption case after the government of Iran awarded a licence to MTN rather than Turkish company Turkcell which has sued MTN.
Israel-hating nations that have gone to the bad could fill a book. How exactly does it work? Walter Russell Mead, testifying to Congress about Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, seemed to illuminate the mystery Referring to Iranian Mullahs he said: “Quite sane leaders when it comes to Israel lose their minds. Nations and political establishments warped by Israel-hatred tend to make one dumb decision after another.”
The Old Testament points to the ancient link. “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.” Ramaphosa and his party got in with the wrong crowd – the pro-terrorist crowd, the crowd under the same curse that came upon self-destructive Philistine and self-destructive Nazi Germany.
