South Africa appointed former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to the United States on Monday, ostensibly to improve frayed relations between the two countries.
South African journalists uncovered a 2020 speech in which Jonas called President Donald Trump a “racist,” “homophobe,” and “narcissistic right-winger.”
Jonas delivered the speech to the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation in November 2020. The foundation was formed in 2008 to “deepen non-racialism in post-apartheid South Africa.”
Jonas’ address to the foundation was primarily a rant against “de-globalization” and in favor of globalist obsessions such as climate change and coronavirus authoritarianism. Among other topics, he complained that the “Great Lockdown” for the coronavirus pandemic was disproportionately harsh on developing nations, so they should receive compensation from the developed world.
Jonas was very excited to see that Joe Biden was leading Donald Trump in the 2020 election, which had not been decided at the time he spoke. His vicious anti-Trump commentary came early in the speech:
Right now, the U.S. is undergoing a watershed moment with 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.
“Hopefully the defeat of Trump will deal a blow to the de-globalization lobby,” he said later in the address.
As things turned out, the disaster of the Biden presidency dealt a rather devastating blow to globalism, and the triumphant return of Trump to the White House threatens to dismantle the entire globalist system, so it is hard to see why Jonas would want to be a special envoy to the Trump administration if he was expressing his true feelings in 2020 — or why the Trump administration would receive him.
The Trump White House will probably object to Jonas calling the president a “racist” and “homophobe.” The bulk of the speech is actually more problematic than Jonas’ personal slurs against Trump since it outlines a globalist worldview that could not be more incompatible with the views of the U.S. administration. There is little in Jonas’ remarks to suggest he is capable of seeing the other side of the arguments on globalist control.
When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Jonas’ appointment on Monday, he said his special envoy would “lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships, and engage with U.S. government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation’s interests.”
“For decades, South Africa and the United States of America have maintained a historical and strategic relationship. In the interest of our country, our region and the rest of our continent, I remain committed to rebuilding and maintaining this relationship for more decades on the basis of mutual respect, recognition of each other’s sovereignty and benefit for our respective peoples,” Ramaphosa said.
An envoy who insulted the President of the United States — as Trump was in November 2020, and is once again today — does not seem like a good choice for rebuilding a “special relationship” with the United States, especially given that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled in March for making comparably slanderous remarks about President Trump.
Rasool took the post as ambassador to the United States shortly before the defeated Biden left office in January. As Breitbart News reported in March, Rasool told a forum in Johannesburg that Trump was motivated by “white supremacy” to advance “nativist” and “racist” policies. Rasool also professed to be a fan of the mass-murdering terrorists of Hamas in 2023.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Breitbart News’ reporting when he announced the expulsion of the South African ambassador on March 14.
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates President Trump. We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA,” Rubio said.
Jonas has solid credentials with South Africa’s governing ANC party, having made headlines during former president Jacob Zuma’s massive corruption scandals by claiming he refused a bribe from Zuma’s wealthy patrons in the Gupta family when he was serving as Zuma’s deputy finance minister. He previously served Ramaphosa as an adviser on securing international investment for South African businesses.
Trump has been strongly critical of the South African government, to the point where his administration is skipping G20 events during South Africa’s presidency of the organization. In February, Trump suspended U.S. aid to South Africa after it passed a controversial law on land expropriation. If Ramaphosa truly wants to mend fences, it is strange for him to pick a special envoy who used the same sort of incendiary rhetoric as his expelled ambassador.
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