Some analysts see Pretoria’s unexpected move with regard to local black ownership in the minerals exploration sector as a win for the United States.
JOHANNESBURG—Clauses in a draft bill that would have forced foreign minerals exploration companies to be partly owned by black locals have been scrapped by the South African government.
Some analysts see Pretoria’s move, which happened on June 10, as a win for the United States.
In an executive order on Feb. 7, U.S. President Donald Trump described South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action policies as “racial discrimination” against the country’s white minority, and even offered asylum to white Afrikaners based on alleged “racial persecution.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration denies its dramatic change of tack is meant to appease the United States, saying its decision “makes practical economic sense.” The administration previously said that the legislation wasn’t negotiable.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington are tense, with the two frequently sparring since Trump began his second presidential term in January.
The U.S. leader has cancelled more than $400 million in annual financial aid to South Africa, accusing it of allying with America’s enemies, including China, Iran, and Russia, and endangering U.S. national security.
Trump is also highly critical of Pretoria’s filing of genocide charges against Israel, Washington’s strongest partner in the Middle East.
The African National Congress (ANC), the majority party in South Africa’s coalition government, is a strong supporter of Palestinians and filed the case against Tel Aviv’s military actions in response to Gaza-based terror group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Other actions taken by the Trump administration against South Africa include the expulsion of its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, also a senior ANC official, in March after Rasool described the Trump government and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement as “supremacist.”
Representatives from the Trump and Ramaphosa administrations are currently negotiating a new trade deal between the two countries, after the U.S leader imposed a 30 percent tariff on South African imports.
Trump exempted critical minerals and most precious metals from the higher taxes because he considers them to be essential to American economic progress and the country’s security.
