South Africa’s president says U.S. jealous of Huawei’s 5G advances

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that the United States is jealous that the Chinese tech giant Huawei has outstripped them when it comes to 5G development.

The president was speaking at the opening of the 4th Industrial Revolution South Africa Digital Economy Summit in Midrand.

“The United States has been unable to imagine a better future which goes beyond 4 plus 1G, where they have been unable to imagine what 5G can offer, and where now clearly they are jealous,” President Ramaphosa said in his speech. Because of America’s backwardness in 5G development, “they must now punish that one company and use it as a pawn in the fight that they have with China.”

He said several telecommunication companies had written a letter to him to say that a ban on Huawei would be damaging, because they rely on the company for 5G technology.

President Ramaphosa said his government supports Huawei, because it helps South Africa to advance. “We support a company that is going to take our country and the world to better technologies, and that is 5G. We support them,” he said.

This is not the first time President Ramaphosa has publicly given his support to Huawei. At the G20 summit in Osaka last month, he spoke highly of the contribution Huawei has made to the development of telecommunication services in South Africa.