ANC attacks AfriForum, Solidarity and the DA, and defends BEE, land reform, and employment equity

The African National Congress (ANC) said that it rejects the United States administration’s announced withdrawal of South Africa’s AGOA eligibility.

This statement followed a day after the United States decided to remove South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on 1 January 2027.

This will end South Africa’s duty-free access to the United States market for key industries, which will hurt the agriculture and car manufacturing industries.

In response to this announcement by the United States, the ANC said that it will not allow economic pressure to dictate South Africa’s foreign policy.

It added that the United States’ actions would not force it to abandon the responsibility to reverse colonial and apartheid injustices.

“AGOA provides tariff preferences. Its withdrawal does not close the American market or mean economic collapse,” it said.

“Claims of catastrophic job losses confuse the broader United States trade relationship with exposure to AGOA preferences.”

“Nevertheless, government must protect affected workers and industries, strengthen local production and expand alternative markets.”

The ANC said that land reform, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment and employment equity are democratic instruments of redress.

“Their gains, though incomplete, were hard won. Abandoning transformation would entrench apartheid’s economic inheritance and strip political freedom of economic substance,” it said.

The ANC condemned campaigns by AfriForum, Solidarity and the Democratic Alliance against transformation.

These campaigns, the ANC said, had contributed to international pressure on South Africa.

“The announcement’s timing during special voting, alongside economic misinformation, deepens concern about attempts to intimidate voters and undermine democratic choices,” it said.

“Our history of resistance, the Freedom Charter and the Constitution demand that we defend sovereignty, equality and economic justice.”

 “We honour those who sacrificed for liberation and the progressive Americans who stood against apartheid.”

The ANC said that it supports diplomacy and mutually beneficial trade with the United States.

“We will not surrender transformation for preferential market access. AGOA may be withdrawn. Our struggle for economic emancipation will continue. We will not be bullied.”

Impact on South African exporters

South African exporters are weighing potential job losses and squeezed margins after Washington moved to end the country’s duty-free access to the US market.

However, economists and analysts said the broader economic fallout in South Africa was likely to be limited.

With one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, South Africa will feel the effects of any losses, the country’s largest trade union, COSATU, said.

“We cannot afford to abandon a single worker, business, industry or community,” it said, blaming white interest groups for spreading lies that led to South Africa’s exclusion.

President Donald Trump has targeted the country largely due to what he says is its persecution of white people, which Pretoria says is a false narrative spread by fringe groups.

“It is long overdue that proponents of the white persecution myths appreciate the very real damage that their endless lobbying and antics in the US have done to bilateral relations,” COSATU said.

But agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo said there had been talk of removing South Africa from AGOA for more than a decade because it is an upper-middle-income country and should have a more reciprocal trade agreement with the US.

“Being excluded or graduating out of AGOA does not necessarily mean that South Africa loses market access to the US. All this means is that there will be additional tariffs,” he said.

For most products, it will be an additional tariff of around 3.4%, he said. Almost 90% of South Africa’s exports to the US already fall outside AGOA.

Business lobby group Business Unity South Africa said the number of job losses was likely to be in the range of a few thousand.