Special Report: Atlanta and South Africa - Partnership or Politics?

Atlanta: South Africa’s Anchor in Uncertainty?

This week, a letter went out from the White House with a stern warning for South Africa: Make your market fair for U.S. companies, or face a 30 percent tariff.

In President Trump’s calculation, trade incongruity with a country whose population is about 1/6 the size of the U.S. and whose economy is about half as large as the state of Georgia’s poses a dire national security threat.

But this wasn’t a new grenade lobbed in South Africa’s direction — it has been in the air for months, with Trump already having threatened the levy in April, prompting predictions of a catastrophic drop in exports from South Africa and the de facto death of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House in May, gaining some acclaim for calmly defusing Mr. Trump’s ambush on the subject of white farmer mistreatment, a claim that has led to a U.S. offer of refugee status for those affected by a controversial land expropriation law in South Africa.

But while all this bickering occurs at the binational level, a current of collaboration has consistently flowed in Atlanta, springing in part from an initiative enacted by former Ambassador Reuben Brigety II before he left the post in January.

Atlanta Phambili’s thesis went as follows: Atlanta is a key focal point for all the positive aspects of the countries’ relationship — commercial, civil rights and cultural collaborations — and can provide a firm anchor in unsteady times.

Last June, supported by our partners at Ethiopian Airlines, Global Atlanta traveled to South Africa on a Dispatch, conducting follow-up reporting to Mr. Brigety’s Phambili delegation of March 2024, and looking at efforts to reinforce this bridge. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens later took a reciprocal trade mission to Johannesburg and Cape Town in December, aiming to solidify a partnership that would see support from the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria reduced under the new administration.

Through that report and in the ensuing year of trade turbulence, we’ve been watching — pen in hand — to see how Atlanta businesspeople, sports teams, cultural and creative influencers and politicians would respond:

Would they show unshakeable dedication to such a faraway parter, or let the momentum die somewhere over the Atlantic?

So far, the trend has been toward partnership in the face of politics. Though not comprehensive, the below special report is a snapshot of how the city’s ties with the largest economy in Africa have persisted in some really key (and very fun) ways. More important than the information we’ve collated here, however, is how you, the community, use it to foster more trade, investment and people-to-people ties.