UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR CALLS FOR SHARED COMMITMENT TO DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
Donald Gips, the United States Ambassador to South Africa, used an address to the South African Institute of International Affairs to argue that the two nations face remarkably similar governance challenges and hold the institutional capacity to solve them together. Speaking one year into his tenure, Gips framed the bilateral relationship as a strategic partnership grounded in shared democratic values and mutual interest in continental stability.
The ambassador opened by emphasizing the depth of engagement beyond government-to-government cooperation. Academic exchanges, private sector investment, non-profit partnerships and tourism create what Gips called a “dynamic and vibrant” relationship. He noted that American companies have established over 600 operations in South Africa, and that Americans purchased more World Cup tickets than any other foreign nation, pointing to organic ties between the two populations.
Gips identified five core areas where the two governments have aligned their work: HIV/AIDS response, education reform, job creation through trade, anti-corruption efforts, and media freedom. On each issue, he positioned the United States as a supporting partner to South African government leadership and institutions.
The U.S. commitment to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is substantial. Washington provides approximately R4 billion annually through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, with the vast majority supporting technical assistance and infrastructure. In late 2009, the U.S. contributed an additional one-time payment of $120 million to support anti-retroviral drug purchases and improve delivery systems. That intervention demonstrated these drugs could be procured at half the cost South Africa had previously paid, enabling the Health Ministry to expand treatment reach. Gips credited Health Minister Motsoaledi with driving a government-wide response and highlighted prevention initiatives including mother-to-child transmission programs and male circumcision efforts, which research suggests reduce incidence by 60 percent.
On education, Gips acknowledged that South Africa’s 2009 matric pass rate of approximately 60 percent, a 2 percent decline from the previous year, falls short of acceptable standards. The problem is not funding alone. South Africa already spends more on education than most continental peers. Drawing on his experience in the Obama and Clinton administrations, Gips referenced U.S. reform initiatives such as the “Race to the Top” program, which emphasizes teacher performance evaluation, tenure review, charter schools and closure of persistently failing institutions. He cautioned that American models are not directly transferable but urged South African leaders to reject the status quo and engage in substantive debate about educational transformation.
Job creation emerged as perhaps the highest priority in Gips’ remarks. He positioned trade as preferable to aid and highlighted the African Growth and Opportunity Act as a mechanism for expanding bilateral commerce. South Africa is the leading non-oil AGOA beneficiary, with 97 percent of South African exports to the United States entering duty-free in 2009. Gips identified Black Economic Empowerment policy uncertainty as a barrier to increased American investment and praised the Department of Trade and Industry’s recent agreement with Microsoft as a potential model for greater regulatory clarity. The U.S. also supports the South African International Business Linkages Program, which has created over 18,000 jobs and generated R12 billion in small and medium enterprise revenue.
Meanwhile, Gips stressed that breaking down trade barriers within Africa itself is essential to continental prosperity. A market of 48 million South African consumers is attractive to investors, he said, but a market of 1 billion across Africa would be irresistible. Tariff reduction, harmonized standards, simplified border procedures and infrastructure improvement are all necessary. Corruption, which Gips identified as a significant cost of doing business, must be addressed through sustained leadership across government, business and civil society. He cited South Africa’s 2009 ranking of 55th out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s corruption index as respectable but improvable.
Media freedom and press accountability dominated the latter portion of the address. Gips acknowledged government concerns about journalistic professionalism while defending the constitutional right to criticism. He cited President Obama’s statement that criticism, however unreasonable it may seem to those in power, is institutionalized in American democracy, and quoted Thomas Jefferson on the indispensability of press freedom to liberty.
Gips recognized economic pressures on South African media and noted that journalists themselves acknowledge lapses in standards. He called for a balance between the right to criticize and the obligation to report truthfully and fairly. On sensitive information, he argued that legal protections must be strictly defined and limited to genuine national security matters, not broader “national interests.” The ambassador urged both media and government to develop specific, concrete standards for managing sensitive information while guaranteeing free speech and the right to dissent. He expressed hope that South Africa’s Constitution, which he called one of the world’s greatest such documents, would guide the debate forward.
Gips also addressed South Africa’s continental role, highlighting the country’s contributions as a peacekeeper in Burundi and Sudan, as a regional negotiator on disputes including Zimbabwe’s power-sharing arrangement, and as a source of development and humanitarian assistance to neighbors. The U.S. supports these efforts through the Trilateral Assistance Program, which has enabled South African expertise in food crop research, disaster preparedness and government official training to benefit other African countries including Sudan and Malawi.
On Zimbabwe, Gips stated that the United States and South Africa share identical goals: a free, fair and prosperous Zimbabwe in which Zimbabweans control their own destiny. He acknowledged that South Africa faces immediate practical challenges as Zimbabwean instability drives migration across the border and strains local resources. While the two countries hold different tactical views, Gips said dialogue has improved and will continue.
The ambassador closed by describing South Africa as the only nation to reinvent itself as a free, democratic, multiracial society after apartheid, and as a country the world looks to for leadership by example. Whether that example holds, particularly as debates over media regulation and BEE policy clarity intensify, may determine how much further the bilateral partnership can actually reach.