SA-born Elon Musk hails ‘great meeting’ with Cyril Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has met with South African/American billionaire Elon Musk during his visit to the US, where he is leading a R2-trillion investment drive.

Ramaphosa is in the country for a high-level general debate of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, under way in New York.

The president, along with government officials, will also “undertake several engagements focusing on economic diplomacy initiatives”, according to the Presidency.

Among them was a meeting with the Tesla founder during the general assembly.

Ramaphosa met with Musk on Monday, where two spoke about investment in South Africa.

Pictures from the meeting were shared on Musk-owned X by the president himself, the SA government and Musk, who said it was “great meeting Ramaphosa” on his own page.

Ramaphosa also addressed the South Africa/USA Business Forum at the New York Stock Exchange that same day, where he is on a drive to secure R2-trillion in investment for the country.

“The far-reaching structural reforms we have implemented over the past six years have opened up the country to increased levels of investment that continues to grow.

“This has been particularly evident in the clean energy sector that has attracted significant investment since our mobilisation drive began,” he said.

Ramaphosa also touched on the country’s efforts to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s [FATF] grey list.

South Africa was greylisted by the FATF in February 2023 for not complying with international standards relating to money laundering and addressing illicit financial flows. The FATF found the country had serious weaknesses when assessing the deficiencies in the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and the Combating of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CTF) regime.

“In November 2023 the FATF noted that we had made progress in strengthening measures  to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing and upgraded us. We expect to detail more progress in this regard in our next report back schedule for October,” he said.