‘Our greatest asset’ — Alistair Ruiters is hot favourite to be SA’s next ambassador to US

Alistair Ruiters, widely tipped to become South Africa’s next ambassador to the United States, would have better access to the US government than anyone else yet suggested for the job, say insiders. He is already acting as SA’s chief trade negotiator with the US.

Ruiters (61), President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment adviser since April and a former director-general of trade and industry, seems to be enjoying widening support across different sectors of South Africa to get the toughest job in South African diplomacy — that of “normalising” SA relations with the cantankerous Trump administration.

The job has been glaringly vacant since the previous incumbent, former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled by the Trump administration in March, barely three months into the job, for suggesting in a public webinar that Trump was a white supremacist.

Ramaphosa has been under growing pressure since then to fill the vacant but critical post in Washington as relations with the US continue to falter.

Ramaphosa’s appointment of Mcebisi Jonas as his special envoy after Rasool’s expulsion also went sour after Jonas was belatedly found to have made insulting remarks about Trump in a public video in 2016. The Trump administration has refused to grant him a diplomatic visa, considerably hampering his mission.

Since then, many names have been proposed to fill the Washington job, but none seemed to fit the bill. Until Ruiters, perhaps?

The support for Ruiters, who also has business experience, appears to extend from at least parts of the SA government, through the Democratic Alliance and SA’s business community and into the US government, where he has already made a good impression, according to Washington sources.

No-nonsense technocrat

Ruiters is already acting as South Africa’s de facto chief trade negotiator with the US, it has emerged, and seems to have impressed the Americans as a no-nonsense technocrat who gets on with the job.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde sat down with Ruiters at SA’s embassy in Washington this month when Winde was on a mission to try to save Western Cape exports to the US. Winde was clearly impressed.

He told Daily Maverick that Ruiters was “probably our biggest asset right now… He’s building relationships. He’s filling a massive void. He’s filled that gap. And, I mean, it’s just the biggest economy in the world. Come on, guys,” Winde said.

“This should be on the priority list right at the top. Get agreement and get an ambassador.”

Winde added that he had suggested Ruiters for the job.

Top South African businessman Martin Kingston, the executive chair of Rothschild and Co SA and chair of the steering committee of Business 4 South Africa (B4SA), agreed: “I think he would be a good choice. He’s proved himself both in the public sector and the private sector. In my experience, he’s pragmatic and thoughtful, professional and seasoned. He clearly has the confidence of the President and has demonstrated a good understanding of the issues confronting the US-SA relationship.”

An economic analyst who has worked with Ruiters but did not wish to be named agreed: “I think he is a good choice. I did work with Alistair when he was DG [director-general] of dtic [Department of Trade, Industry and Cooperation]. I always found him pragmatic, and he listened to input from stakeholders. He was exposed to trade and industrial issues as DG of the dtic, and these seem to dominate our relationship with the USA at the moment.

“He has also spent his time after he left the dtic in private business and is not as exposed to the rough and tumble of domestic and international politics. His low political profile will provide him with the necessary space to build relationships and be an effective emissary for South Africa.”

Those qualities seem to be appealing to the US government, which appears to be accepting him as a technocrat focused sharply on the job at hand — reducing the high import tariffs US President Donald Trump has slapped on SA, getting its participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act extended and, more generally, normalising economic relations with the world’s largest economy.

One Western ambassador though, advised caution, saying that for all his trade experience and expertise, Ruiters couldn’t do much about the non-trade issues — or “hot-button” issues as Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Park Tau has called them — which bother the Trump administration so much, like black economic empowerment, expropriation of property without compensation and the supposed persecution of Afrikaners.

President Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told Daily Maverick, “We are not going to enter into any realm of speculation regarding this matter. When the President is ready to announce his appointment, with all the necessary administrative processes concluded, we will announce.

“The President appreciates the urgency and he equally understands what he needs to do to ensure that we sustain the momentum that we now have in our engagements with President’s Trump administration.” DM