Political Analyst After Trump Sweeps to Victory: Why Are the US Elections So Important to SA?
- Former President Donald Trump won the US elections, defeating the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris
- This ensures Trump a clear path to inauguration day as the 47th President of the United States on 20 January 2025
- Political analyst and senior University of Pretoria lecturer Sithembile Mbete spoke to Briefly News about the elections
- Mbete said that the elections were essential to SA on various fronts, including bilateral relations on trade
Source: Getty Images
TSHWANE — The US presidential elections ran their course, with Donald J Trump the clear winner even before the final votes were tallied across the remaining swing states on Wednesday, 6 November 2024.
By the time this story was published, Trump had already given his acceptance speech as the president-elect after taking the presidential vote by a landslide.
US elections' importance to SA
This paves the way for Trump, who was the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, to be sworn in as the 47th President on Monday, 20 January 2025.
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Among the battleground states, his victory was decided after he swept Pennsylvania and Alaska to get the 270 electoral college votes to defeat the Democratic Party candidate, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris.
There are 538 electoral college votes, and the candidate who passes the 270 threshold wins the race.
After securing his third battleground victory, the former President addressed supporters while the other swing states in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin remained too close to call.
Harris took California and New York, among the traditionally Democratic states, but her prospects of occupying the highest seat in the White House were dusted.
While the final votes were expected to trickle in on Wednesday, political analyst and University of Pretoria senior lecturer Dr Sithembile Mbete spoke exclusively to Briefly News about the US elections' bearing on SA's trade.
Mbete painted a clear picture of the importance of the outcome for several reasons primarily hinged on the US's status as a leading global powerhouse.
Significant trading partner
The US is SA's third-largest trading partner in terms of two-way trade. Although, in some cases, SA has lots of trade with China, our trade with the US is more favourable to our trade with China because the US has a trade deficit with us.
We export more than we import from the US. This makes for a favourable trade relationship.
Last year, several US Congress representatives attempted to have SA removed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which SA has been a part of since its inception due to our foreign policy stance on Israel.
However, the attempts weren't successful, as subsequent negotiations between the two countries smoothed things out. This was important because SA is the biggest beneficiary of AGOA of all African countries that are a part of it.
SA has the most companies within the US that benefit from this arrangement, which allows our companies to export goods and services to the US duty-free.
SA to host G20 Summit
The country has been part of the G20 for many years, and next year, SA will host it for the first time, the first time it is held in Africa. The US will host the G20, taking over from us in 2026.
What tends to happen is that countries staging it one after the other work closely together to ensure a smooth transition. So, SA will liaise closely with whatever the US government will be.
Much hasn't been said about Trump's position and attitude towards the G20. Regardless, US-SA relations will be in the spotlight, whoever the President.
SA's foreign policy position
The case the country brought against Isreal for genocide in the International Court of Justice and our role in BRICS heightened SA's foreign policy and international relations position.
The way any given US administration views that matters for our freedom to exercise independent foreign policy. However, because SA has longstanding military, intelligence, and other relationships with the US, all of these matters.
Mbete is an academic whose research interests include international relations, global government and multilateralism. Her domestic research interests are in electoral politics.
Ramaphosa sworn in as President
In related news, Briefly News reported that there was no doubt about the astonishing election result or the occasion it brought as Cyril Ramaphosa rose to the apex of the seventh administration on Wednesday, 19 June 2024.
Ramaphosa scored a mammoth victory against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Julius Malema for a second term in the presidential hot seat.
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Source: Briefly News
