Is Mcebisi Jonas the right man as SA’s US rep?

When choosing a special envoy to advance South Africa’s “diplomatic, trade and bilateral priorities” in the US, President Cyril Ramaphosa could have chosen someone more suitable than Mcebisi Jonas.

There are three reasons why Jonas is not the best choice. First, he is on record insulting US President Donald Trump.

Second, he chairs the MTN Group which is embroiled in a legal battle in New York under the US Anti-Terrorism Act.

MTN is alleged to have engaged with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which is listed by the US as a terrorist organisation. There is a further allegation that MTN supported Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

Third, detractors – rightly or wrongly – portray Jonas as a B-BBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) beneficiary. Any one of these factors would on its own be enough to make Jonas’ task almost impossible.

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Many former Trump critics, including US Vice-President JD Vance, have changed their views. Will Jonas do the same? In a 2016 text message to a former Yale Law School classmate, Vance referred to Trump as “America’s Hitler”. In the same year, in a New York Times opinion piece, he described Trump’s “demagoguery” as “reprehensible”.

In other interviews he said Trump was noxious and “not the right guy to lead our party”. He also described Trump as an idiot and a moral disaster.

Changing his tune in 2021, Vance now sings Trump’s praises at every opportunity.

Brent Bozell, US ambassador-designate to SA, in 2016 called Trump the “greatest charlatan of them all, a huckster, and a shameless self-promoter”. He added “God help this country if this man were president.”

People change.

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Jonas’ record on Trump includes the following. In a 2020 video clip now on X, he describes Trump as a racist, homophobic, narcissist right-winger.

In 2019, Jonas said of Trump’s attacks on the media: “When a leader constantly cries ‘fake news’, it’s usually because he’s terrified of the truth”.

In 2020, Jonas said Trump’s “xenophobic and isolationist policies are a threat to global democracy and economic progress, particularly for Africa”.

This then, in Ramaphosa’s judgment, is the best person to put South Africa’s case to the US power brokers who are in Trump’s thrall.

By embracing Vance and Bozell, transactional Trump has shown willingness to overlook past insults in exchange for repeated displays of slavish devotion. Will Jonas bend the knee? Don’t bet on it.

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The MTN connection could be important because the alleged links to Iran’s revolutionary guards and the Taliban come with accusations that these led to the loss of American lives. If this proved true, critics would invoke hostility to US national interest as a reason to snub Jonas.

It is probably unkind to bring up the B-BBEE question. But it’s noteworthy that a BA in history and sociology from Vista University and an education diploma from Rhodes can equip one to be a deputy finance minister and then MTN group board chair.

Despite the positions he has reached in South Africa, Jonas is likely to be seen as unacceptable and lightweight by an administration that recently expelled SA’s ambassador and sent other signals of disapproval.

If SA was serious about mending US ties, we’d choose differently.