Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), a lobby group, has expressed confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa and South Africa’s ambassador to the United States (US), Roelf Meyer, to manage the country’s increasingly strained relationship with Washington.

BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said relations between the two governments had become increasingly difficult since US President Donald Trump began his second term, despite deep economic and personal links between South Africans and Americans.

Mavuso pointed to the large South African presence at the recent Springboks and All Blacks match in Baltimore as evidence of the extensive connections between the two countries.

She said, however, that political relations remained strained, and described US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recently announced visa restrictions targeting South African officials over what he described as race-based discrimination as “unhelpful”.

BLSA warned against allowing the dispute to develop into an ideological contest between Pretoria and Washington.

Taking a position on the fence, the business organisation argued that South Africa should defend its sovereignty and constitutional democracy while also protecting its economic relationship with one of its most important trade and investment partners.

Mavuso said hundreds of thousands of South African livelihoods were connected to the economic relationship with the US and called for pragmatic diplomacy rather than escalation.

Most significantly, BLSA expressed confidence in the President’s ability to steer the relationship through the current tensions.

“I am confident that President Cyril Ramaphosa, and our ambassador in the US, Roelf Meyer, will navigate the line with care. It is not the time for any rash response,” Mavuso said.

The intervention amounts to a significant vote of confidence in Ramaphosa from organised business at a time when relations between Pretoria and Washington have deteriorated sharply.