South Africa’s visiting delegation to the United States reportedly hopes to entice former South African Elon Musk to back a trade deal by offering him lower tariffs on Teslas in return for building charging stations.
South Africa’s News24.com reported:
President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to discuss business opportunities for Elon Musk’s companies during a visit to Washington this week aimed at mending relations with US President Donald Trump, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson said on Monday.
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The two heads of state are scheduled to meet on Wednesday. And South African officials have been preparing a trade proposal to present to Trump to reset the relationship.
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One potential proposal would be for Tesla – led by Musk, a close ally and adviser to Trump – to receive favourable tariffs on its imports into South Africa in exchange for building electric vehicle charging stations.
Musk has noted his frustration that South Africa has not yet allowed Starlink, his satellite Internet provider, to enter the country, because of “Black Economic Empowerment” rules that require 30% of the company be owned by a black person. Effectively, Musk sayd, that means he is not allowed to invest because he is white.
A spokesperson for South Africa’s ruling party recently said that if foreign investors don’t like South Africa’s rules, they can go elsewhere.
ANC National Spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu, says that if internasional investors want ro invest in South Africa, but want secure property rights and no racialist criteria, they can take their money elsewhere, like India.
— Conscious Caracal 🇿🇦 (@ConCaracal) May 17, 2025
The host is stunned. pic.twitter.com/u0LvaEyEjQ
South Africa’s delegation hopes to save the country’s participation in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a preferential trade deal with African nations that expires at the end of September and may not be reauthorized, for any nation, by a skeptical Republican Congress. Failing that, the South African government hopes for a new, separate deal with the U.S., and has refrained from raising reciprocal tariffs on American goods after Trump raised tariffs on imports from around the world last month.
However, as Breitbart News has noted, the South African government has focused on claiming that Trump is misinformed about their country, rather than offering substantive compromises on issues he has identified.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
