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Trump likes Cape Town, says US ambassador

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“I would love nothing more than for Trump to come to South Africa. He said that Cape Town is beautiful”

US AMBASSADOR Lana Marks wasted no time in addressing the South African media just four days after her arrival in the country.

There has been a lapse of two years and 10 months with no resident US ambassador in South Africa, and Marks seems intent on making up for lost time, remarking how thrilled she is to finally be at home.

Marks grew up in East London but left the country in the 1970s, becoming a US citizen in 1994. She made a name for herself as the chief executive of the Lana Marks fashion brand, specialising in designer handbags.

Over three decades Marks opened boutiques around the world, and says by the time Trump asked her to be the US ambassador to South Africa in 2016, she had travelled to 110 countries.

“South Africa is the democratic and economic leader of the world’s fastest growing continent, and I cannot emphasise in strong enough terms that the US – our government, our business, our investors – greatly values the partnership between our two nations.”

Marks was asked about Trump’s perceptions about Africa and South Africa, and to explain why it is that neither Trump nor his Secretary of State had made a visit to South Africa to date.

“I would love nothing more than for Trump to come to South Africa. He said that Cape Town is beautiful,” Marks responded.

Marks highlighted the fact that the US is South Africa’s third-largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at R203 billion.

– Shannon Ebrahim

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