John Endres reports from BNC#8: Bozell means business - Biznews

John Endres
South Africa has a new US ambassador, and he is not here to please all of the people, all of the time. He is here to make a point – and, if the conditions are right, a deal.

Leo Brent Bozell III addressed the BizNews conference in Hermanus on Monday. His prepared remarks were measured and diplomatic, but his off-script comments told a fuller story.

Bozell was personally chosen by President Trump for this post and was confirmed by the Senate in 332 days, compared to the 979 days it took for his previous SA pick, according to a client note from the Centre for Risk Analysis. That speed shows that this appointment mattered to Trump.

Bozell said that Trump saw South Africa as one of the top ten investment opportunities for the United States in the world. That means Washington is paying close attention to South Africa, and that the attention is not only punitive.

The ambassador made clear that the US had put five specific requests to the South African government. Those requests were made nearly a year ago. The US was still waiting for a response. Its patience, Bozell suggested, was running out.

It is worth pausing on who Bozell is: he is not a career diplomat. He is a conservative activist, founder of the Media Research Center, and a member of one of the United States’ most prominent conservative dynasties. His uncle was William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of National Review.

In the social media post announcing the nomination, Trump called Bozell a leader of “fearless tenacity” for a nation in need. South Africa should take that description seriously.

In Hermanus, Bozell did something unusual. He asked South Africa’s business community to say publicly what they tell him privately. Business leaders, he noted, regularly shared their concerns about the investment climate in quiet conversation. He wants them to say the same things out loud.

Remarkable request
That is a remarkable request from a foreign ambassador. It is also a fair one.

The Trump administration’s five asks are not exotic. They include protecting rural communities from violence, condemning rhetoric that incites hatred or glorifies violence, ensuring fair compensation standards in expropriation, expanding cooperation on digital infrastructure and critical minerals, and ending the requirement that foreign companies surrender ownership or control as a condition of doing business.

These are reasonable demands that any serious investment destination should be able to meet.

The ambassador was also direct about foreign policy. The US does not expect South Africa to become a US satellite. It would accept a genuinely non-aligned posture. What it will not accept is what it currently sees: a country that votes consistently alongside China, Russia and Iran while claiming non-alignment.

Two recent events illustrate the problem. On 5 March, just days before Bozell arrived in Hermanus, Ramaphosa gave an interview to the New York Times in which he called Trump “truly uninformed”, described his views on South Africa as coming through “a completely foggy lens”, and labelled the Afrikaner refugee programme “racist”.

Around the same time, the ANC sent a delegation to the Iranian embassy in Pretoria to sign a condolence book following the death of Ayatollah Khamenei. Neither gesture was compulsory. Instead, these are the kind of choices that confirm American suspicions about where South Africa’s sympathies really lie.

Bozell is not a pessimist. He cited investments worth billions of rand from Google, Microsoft, Visa and Amazon as proof that US capital is willing to commit to South Africa. More than 500 US companies operate here, employing over 250,000 people. He wants to see that number double. He said: “We want partners who also dream great dreams, and that is South African’s signature. Let us do all in our power to make this relationship thrive.”

But SA is not the only destination for US capital. US investors compare markets and allocate investment where the rules are clear and property rights are safe. South Africa is competing for that capital against countries that score fewer own goals.

Needs to say so
The ambassador is right that South Africa’s business community has a role to play. It is not enough to whisper concerns at embassy receptions and then stay silent in public. If the business community wants the investment policy environment to improve, it needs to say so loudly, repeatedly, and on the record.

South Africa has a genuine opportunity here. A capable, well-connected ambassador with a direct line to the president is in the country, ready to engage. The US wants a partnership. It has said what it needs.

The ball is in Pretoria’s court.

John Endres is the CEO of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). He holds a doctorate in commerce and economics from one of Germany’s leading business schools, the Otto Beisheim School of Management, as well as a Master’s in Translation Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. John has extensive work experience in the retail and services industries as well as the non-profit sector, having previously worked for the liberal Friedrich Naumann Foundation and as founding CEO of Good Governance Africa, an advocacy organisation

https://www.biznews.com/sa-investing/endres-reports-fom-bnc8-bozell-means-business

This article was first published on the Daily Friend.