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The European Union’s representatives in South Africa have issued a message of solidarity as the country tries to shore up international support amid an escalating crisis with Washington.
The ambassadors of France, Germany and Italy and the EU’s deputy ambassador posted a one-minute video clip on X late on Tuesday, in which they stressed that they shared South Africa’s commitment to constitutionalism and multi-lateralism.
“We have many parallels between the European Union and South Africa,” German ambassador Andreas Pesche says, speaking from a function in Pretoria hosted under the theme “United in Diversity”.
Italian ambassador Alberto Vecchi added: “Like you, we are committed to multi-lateralism, rule-based international order and more equity and justice in the world.”
His French counterpart, David Martinon, said France, like South Africa, believed in equality and other constitutional rights.
“Just like you, we love our constitutional rights and protections, and we do believe in a non-racial, non-sexist democracy.”
The EU’s deputy ambassador to Pretoria, Pencho Garrido Ruiz, said the bloc and his host country shared a belief in solidarity, equality and sustainability — values that underpin South Africa’s agenda for its year-long G20 presidency.
“You can rely on the European Union during the G20 this year, during 2025, and beyond,” he added.
The ambassadors recorded the message four days after US President Donald Trump signed a decree suspending all donor funding to South Africa as a sanction for what he termed racial oppression and support for “reinvigorating relations with Iran to develop military, and nuclear arrangements”.
In a so-called fact sheet published last Friday, the White House linked the presidential decree to South Africa’s stance on the conflict in the Gaza and its decision to accuse Israel of genocide in the enclave in a landmark case before the International Court of Justice. “Merely two months after the October 7th terrorist attacks on Israel, South Africa accused Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.”
At a White House media briefing on Tuesday, Trump deflected a question as to whether he would attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November before again suggesting that certain population groups in South Africa face persecution and land dispossession.
“Let’s see what happens, but the South African situation is very, very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people,” he said.
“There is tremendously bad things going on, including the confiscation of property and worse, much worse than that. You know what I’m talking about.”
The White House has seized upon the Expropriation Act signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last month as proof of white Afrikaner lobby groups’ long-standing complaint of racial discrimination in post-apartheid South Africa.
The new law is not designed to enable land redistribution, and the presidency has repeatedly said Trump’s attack is based on misinformation.
Ramaphosa is assembling a delegation to dispatch to Washington to prevent further fallout, after making plain last week in his State of the Nation address that South Africa will “not be bullied” into revising its domestic or foreign policy.
The mission will also travel to other capitals to shore up support, including for its G20 programme.
