Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Inside

The Deputy President of South Africa, Paul Mashatile, visited The President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Marcon, at his residence in Paris on 22 May,2025. The reason for the visit was to strengthen trade relations between South Africa and France. Due to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington in order to repair South Africa’s relations with the United States, the Deputy President decided to cover basis in France as they are also one of South Africa’s key investors and he aims to keep the relations between the two countries intact. 

The meeting between Deputy President Mashatile and President Marcon, comes at the back of the SA-France Investment Conference where the two nations had a positive meeting about upscaling trade relations between South Africa and France. A representative from The Deputy President’s office said “The meeting with President Marcon focused on strengthening trade and diplomatic cooperation in multilateral fora” the representative further said “The importance of economic cooperation between the two countries is about bridging the gap between South and North, thereby creating a trade equilibrium”. 

Deputy President Mashatile highlighted the impact of over 400 French companies operating in South Africa, employing more than 65,000 locals, as a sign of strong economic ties. French companies have invested over R70 billion rand in South African projects since the inaugural investment conference in 2017, despite these investments trade barriers between the two countries remain.  

Deputy President Mashatile believes that even though President Cyril Ramaphosa is visiting President Donald Trump’s administration to ease tensions between South Africa and the US, he feels it’s important for South Africa to ensure that all their other relations with other countries are being nurtured. “We must move faster so we are busy in South Africa now looking at regulations, our procurement policies and legislation to ensure there’s an ease of doing business” Mashatile told SABC. The French President Emmanuel Marcon confirmed that he will be in attendance at the G20 summit in November this year in order to foster the growing relationship between South Africa and France. 

Deputy President of South Africa Paul Mashatile hopes that this meeting in France will further enhance the working relationship between South Africa and France in what seems to be a turning point in South Africa’s economy especially if they can strengthen their relationships with other markets, more specifically in this case the relationship with France. In addition if the relations between South Africa and France continue to grow then this will open up an opportunity for different markets to get into to business with the country.