Global Atlanta's Dispatch to South Africa was made possible through a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines. Via its nonstop flight from Atlanta to Addis Ababa, the airline offers local business and leisure travelers convenient one-stop access to the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town.
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Atlanta’s ties with South Africa got a boost last year from the U.S. government, which positioned the city as the ideal gateway for firms making their way across the pond.
This year, things have changed, to say the least, the latest evidence being the expulsion of South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool over controversial comments on a recent webinar.
The question now is what becomes of the momentum built through the Atlanta Phambili initiative, launched last year by former U.S. envoy Reuben Brigety with a kickoff trip to Atlanta in March.
In December, Mayor Andre Dickens returned the favor, taking a group of Atlanta business leaders to Johannesburg and Cape Town to visit investors like Veldskoen shoes and funders Standard Bank Group, foster creative-industry ties with groups like Snake Nation and NV Film Studios, and enhance educational exchange and youth engagement with partners like the University of Pretoria.
Meanwhile, USAID, a key partner in the effort, has been defunded, and all American aid to South Africa has been suspended.
In turbulent times bilaterally, the way forward is for business and culture to lead and for grassroots or “sub-national” efforts to rise to take on new urgency, those engaged in the relationship said during a Global Atlanta event sponsored by Ethiopian Airlines on Feb. 26: South Africa and Atlanta: Partnership Beyond Politics (recap)
“The Atlanta Phambili mission to South Africa has reaffirmed the power of connection, collaboration and shared progress, and overall, it was evident from our experience,” said Paulina Guzman, director of the Mayor’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs. “The Atlanta-South Africa relationship is enduring, and the spirit of Phambili will help us determine how we can build the bridges that connect our cities and move forward together.”
After describing a wide-ranging program that was “absolutely unmatched” on the ground in South Africa, Ms. Guzman noted that the Atlanta is poised for significant followup. Phambili made Atlanta the featured destination for FAME Week Africa, a festival to be held in Cape Town in September. The city is also an observer for the G20 presidency and meetings held by South Africa throughout 2025.
“Phambili is the Zulu term meaning ‘forward,’ or moving forward, and Mayor Andre Dickens’ vision for our city is moving Atlanta forward. So this initiative really focuses on progress, innovation and inclusive growth for all Atlantans,” Ms. Guzman added.
Attracting Tastemakers
Lorna Maseko is an example of the way Atlanta has enraptured influential South Africans in a new way. The celebrity chef was turned on to the city by Mr. Brigety and then visited for a Brand South Africa event.
“I came to Atlanta, and I thought, wow, this really feels like home,” she said.
Ms. Maseko was no stranger to the U.S. She had tried her hand in New York, only to find cultural barriers that she says were not present in the South.
“You feel that inclusivity in Atlanta as well. You can’t deny it. And so for me, you know, when I heard about Atlanta Phambili, I was like, ‘This is what South Africans need,’” she said.
She’s been getting questioning glances now that the bilateral relationship has deteriorated, but she still believes making the move to Atlanta to advance her culinary and multimedia career will be the right move, in part thanks to the power of food to build bridges. South Africans need to take risks, she said, and Atlanta provides a soft landing pad.
“Food has that power to connect people. It’s that one thread that brings us together, and when you start digging into, you know, how a certain ingredient got into South Africa, you’ll find that it has some kind of synergy with the South.”
Ms. Maseko is tentatively planning to open a restaurant in Atlanta, but in the meantime she’s working with the Distillery of Modern Art to host a Taste of South Africa on March 21:
Evidence of food as a bridge builder was on display during the question-and-answer session, as Lori Levy of My Global Table, an importer, took a moment to outline how Wesgro, the economic development agency for the Western Cape province, was helping growers find markets in the U.S. While the region is known for its wines, she has seen success importing the woman-owned olive oil brand Rio Largo.
“What I’m doing is showing that the connection with South Africa is enduring, and there is a population of people very interested in the food,” she said. “Atlanta, in particular, has been so receptive.”
Wesgro hosted a meeting with Mr. Dickens and has been deepening its ties in Atlanta through a relationship with the Atlanta Black Chambers’ Global Opportunities Committee.
Talking Trade and Talent
Other speakers on the panel at Miller & Martin PLLC focused on how the cultivate talent and trade.
Mourad Dakhli, associate dean for international engagement and partnerships at Georgia State University, said more than 2,000 students have been impacted by longstanding virtual and physical exchange programs held with University of Pretoria, the University of Witwatersrand and other schools.
U.S. funding may be drying up for these initiatives, which he characterized as transformative for students and beneficial for U.S. competitiveness in Africa, but that only proves the value of deep partnerships.
“There are so many ways we can rely on our own resources and our own structures to build these relationships,” Dr. Dakhli said.
The programs aren’t just about bringing U.S. knowhow to South Africa, he emphasized, but rather, for American educators to learn from their counterparts and benefit from South Africa’s ability to attract global research talent, he added.
Larry Yon, co-founder and president of Raleigh, N.C.-based CyberAlliance and a Phambili mission participant, said he’d been cultivating local talent for decades since he joined a Gates Foundation-funded initiative backed by the late Winnie Mandela to help South Africa build capacity in the business process outsourcing sector.
Since then, South Africa has moved up the value chain. Now, Mr. Yon is leading African Diaspora Invests, which helps connect Black business in the U.S. with tangible investment opportunities in South Africa to boost “shared prosperity.”
“South Africa isn’t a place that needs aid; it’s a place of partnership. It’s not necessarily a place of just being consumers. It’s a place of producers,” he said, noting that CyberAlliance is putting data centers in some southern African countries.
Helping allay fears of American business leaders that aren’t familiar with Africa is key to “setting the stage for active partnerships that are more than just about capital, but also about contracts and about opportunities.” Trips and initiatives like Phambili can help lay the groundwork, he said.
Neil Diamond, president of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA, greed, calling for increased capital flows and for South African firms not just to send goods to the U.S., but to bring productive capacity here.
“We sometimes neglect the return leg, and that is the trade back to the U.S., so we’d like to see more entrepreneurs from South Africa enter the U.S. market, and that is not just in manufacturing. That is in cultural diplomacy — South African restaurants, South African creatives — so that we can have a broader footprint on the Atlanta culture.”
Key to this will be moving “beyond politics” to a grassroots initiative that is funded by the private sector even as governments on both sides continue to open doors and provide structure, Mr. Diamond said:
“We are expecting some turbulence ahead. It’s not going to be an easy four years, but we need to find new, innovative and creative ways to navigate this environment.”
Ethiopian Airlines, which provides one-stop flights through Addis Ababa to both Cape Town and Johannesburg, stands ready to facilitate, said sales representative Mahlet Yeshitla in opening remarks.
“This is event is a testament to our collaboration, and we encourage you all to take full advantage for the opportunity it presents.”
Watch the full panel below (Global Atlanta Passport members only):
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