South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday said Africa won’t allow its economy to be affected by the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. He accused the US of being jealous of China’s 5G technology which led to a trade war between two of the world’s largest economies, reported Reuters.
Addressing the 4th Industrial Revolution SA Digital Economy Summit in Midrand on Friday, Ramaphosa said some local telecom operator companies had written to him before he attended last weekend’s G20 summit, urging him to intervene.
“We cannot afford to have our own economy being held back as there is this fight that the U.S is fighting born out of their own jealousy,” said Ramaphosa.
The President said the telecommunication companies had written to him concerned about the impact the trade war would have in relation to the Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies.
“They said, Mr President, this tussle that is happening between China and the United States around a company called Huawei is going to hurt us because we want to go to 5G and only this company Huawei can lead us to 5G but the United States is now punishing them,’” he said at the Digital Economy summit.
Ramaphosa came out in full support of Huawei. He said the local telecom operators want to bring 5G to SA and Huawei was the current leader in the technology.
“We support a company that is going to take our country and the world to better technologies, and that is 5G,” he added. “We support them.”
He welcomed the fact that China and the US leaders at the recent G20 summit in Japan and the US said it would relax some of the constraints imposed on Huawei. He said the people of South Africa want 5G and the government knows how and where to get it from.
