Tiisetso’s view
The Trump administration has never hidden its diplomatic feud with South Africa — whether it be punishing tariffs, visa restrictions, or the US ambassador to Pretoria issuing thinly veiled threats that have left Pretoria sweating over its future in the African Growth and Opportunity Act. But geopolitics doesn’t tell the whole story.
Alcoa, one of America’s oldest industrial companies, is probably Exhibit A when it comes to showing that boardrooms have an extraordinarily high tolerance for diplomatic drama. The global aluminum producer in July signed a $5 billion-plus deal to buy assets, including the Hillside aluminum smelter in South Africa. “We want to be in Hillside for the long term,” William Oplinger, Alcoa’s CEO, told investors what he’d said to President Cyril Ramaphosa in a recent meeting. Oplinger’s comment, and his visit to Pretoria, elevate the deal beyond a standard M&A transaction into a gauge of the broader US-South Africa relationship.
What’s more, just this month, Wabtec, a US transportation juggernaut, signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Transnet, a South African state-owned company. Amazon’s Project Kuiper picked South Africa for its first African satellite launch, Microsoft is expanding its AI infrastructure, while Cisco is deepening its presence, too. And at odds with politics, two-way trade grew more than 10% in 2025 to $29 billion, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa.
Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s ambassador in Washington, unsentimentally told my colleague Yinka Adegoke last week that “business is not necessarily led by politics. Business is led by the bottom line. That is it, full stop.”
US boardrooms appear to have acknowledged the simple fact that South Africa remains one of the world’s most attractive repositories of critical minerals, home to roughly 80% of platinum group metals, the continent’s deepest capital markets, and a gateway to regional supply chains.
Taken together, their actions belie the notion that American capital agrees with American officials’ assessment that South Africa is a problem.
Notable
- The US International Development Finance Corp plans to increase direct equity investments in Africa and the critical minerals sector, as the US steps up efforts to counter China’s dominance of key supply chains, Reuters reported.