On the latest episode of The President’s Inbox, Jim sat down with Reuben Brigety, president of Busara Advisors and U.S. Ambassador to South Africa from 2022 to 2025, to discuss relations between Washington and Pretoria in the wake of last week’s meeting between President Donald Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Here are three takeaways from their conversation:

1) The post-apartheid era of idealistic cooperation between the United States and South Africa is over. For three decades following South Africa’s transition to a full democracy in 1994, U.S. foreign policy toward Pretoria was guided by bipartisan moral support for the country’s political progress. In recent years, however, this goodwill has been steadily eroded by increasing tensions over foreign policy and trade. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ended almost all international aid and canceled the two countries’ partnership to combat HIV/AIDS. When President Ramaphosa arrived in Washington, DC, last week hoping to discuss a trade deal or golf in a gambit to restore friendly relations, President Trump focused on his ideologically motivated and distorted claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa. Reuben explained: “South Africa has the third highest per capita murder rate in the world, so yes, many white farmers have been killed over the last many years, as has virtually everybody in South Africa across racial groups. So, the idea of a white genocide is patently false.”

2) South Africa’s ruling party has embraced an anti-American foreign policy and its role as a leader of the global south. The African National Congress (ANC), the movement that toppled apartheid in 1994, has retained political power till today by doubling down on its original identity as a revolutionary party and aligning itself with insurgency movements. Internally, former President Jacob Zuma’s leadership dismantled the party’s ideological discipline, allowing populist and anti-Western sentiment to dominate grassroots political discourse. A strong international supporter of sovereignty and territorial integrity, Pretoria nevertheless broke with Washington in 2022 when it openly blamed the United States and NATO for forcing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The ANC has also followed through on its historical support for the Palestinian movement by accusing Israel of genocide at the United Nations and urging the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes. The ANC remains ideologically aligned with Russia, Cuba, and Iran, which supported the party during the apartheid era, despite substantially more economic and technological support from Western democracies. South Africa is also deeply proud of its role as a founding member of BRICS. Through BRICS, Pretoria sees itself as a leader of the global south and of post-colonial powers in a shifting era for international order. Reuben explains that South Africa “desires to see a different organization that is pivoted around something other than American preeminent leadership.”

3) Both sides have common interests on which to base a new relationship if they can overcome ideological divisions. Despite widening diplomatic rifts, the strategic logic for a close bilateral relationship remains strong. South Africa is the most industrialized economy in Africa and sits at a critical maritime intersection between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It plays an outsized role in shaping regional stability and voices concerns influential in the global south. Africa’s demographic weight, set to account for a quarter of humanity by 2050, makes engagement with South Africa essential to managing migration, development, and security issues. Moreover, while anti-Americanism dominates within the ANC, national polls indicate that South Africans view the United States more favorably than China, Russia, or even the ANC itself. For its part, U.S. support for HIV/AIDS programs is essential to South Africa’s public health sector, and its domestic industries rely on U.S. technology and export markets to grow. The challenge lies in reconciling public policy with divergent and entrenched political narratives. As Reuben explained, a common phrase in South Africa is for two sides to “let us work to find each other.” Washington and Pretoria, he argues, should “find a way to work on the places where we agree, and use that to build muscle memory to address the places where we don’t.”

If you’re looking to learn more about the relationship between the United States and South Africa, check out CFR Senior Fellow Michelle Gavin’s recent piece, “The Tensions Behind the Trump-Ramaphosa White House Meeting.”