Ramaphosa's ANC dares the United States to sanction it

South Africa's biggest political party said the government won't bow to demands from Donald Trump's administration to change its policies even if that means its leaders are subjected to US sanctions.

American lawmakers are considering a bill that seeks a review of Washington's bilateral relations with Pretoria because of its foreign-policy stance.

Proposed by Texas Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson in April, the draft legislation states that South Africa has abandoned its relationship with the US while aligning itself with China, Russia, Iran and "terrorist organizations," and raises the prospect of unidentified "corrupt officials" being censured.

America is meanwhile set to impose 30% tariffs on imports from South Africa from Thursday, the highest duty charged on goods from any sub-Saharan African nation, part of a shakeup of its relationship with its trading partners. 

The Trump administration has made a raft of demands, including that South Africa abandon laws that were put in place after apartheid ended in 1994 and are aimed at addressing persisting racial inequality, said Fikile Mbalula, the secretary-general of the African National Congress.

The party governed the country outright for three decades before losing its parliamentary majority in last year's elections, and it subsequently entered into an alliance with nine rivals to retain power. 

"They want us to do away with certain policies. It is not going to be possible," Mbalula told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

"If it means we are going to suffer through sanctions as leaders of the ANC, let it be. We will never back imperialists to subvert our democracy, to subvert our sovereignty." 

"If they want to bring sanctions on us, let them bring them," he said.

Relations between South Africa and the US have been fraught since Trump returned to the White House in January. He has falsely accused the African nation's government of presiding over a genocide of White farmers, and criticized its international allegiances. 

The new tariffs will place 30,000 jobs at risk in South Africa, according to the trade department, exacerbating one of the world's worst unemployment crises. The auto and agricultural sectors will be hardest hit, with the US a major export market for both industries.

While the tariffs will negatively affect South Africa's economy, making any concessions that undermined the national interest wasn't an option, Mbalula said. 

"The Trump administration is asking us to abandon the essence of who we are and that is not going to be possible," he said.

"If we are punished for advancing and defending South Africa, that should be the case."