Dodgy details of ‘US envoy’ to SA
TRUMP PICK: MARKS A LUXURY HANDBAG DESIGNER
Lana claims to have ‘background in SA political landscape’ and speaks ‘fluent Xhosa’.
US President Donald Trump has raised eyebrows by reportedly choosing a luxury handbag designer with no diplomatic experience as his pick for America’s ambassador to South Africa.
Notably, Lana Marks, born in East London in the Eastern Cape but has been living in Palm Beach Florida since 1987, is a member of Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club. Club membership costs $100 000 (R1.4 million) for an initial fee and $14 000 a year.
Marks would only become the ambassador to South Africa after being approved by the US Senate.
Trump appears to have a history of choosing paying members of his luxury members-only club as ambassadors. One of Mar-a-Lago’s members, Robin Bernstein, was made US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, while two others were nominated to become envoys to Austria and Ireland, but declined.
Marks makes luxury handbags for a living, some of which cost up to $400 000. She has also been accused of fabricating facts about her past and has had more than half a dozen lawsuits against her in the US for allegedly cheating lawyers, accountants, landlords and employees out of money.
She also faces legal troubles in both South Africa and Israel, with her siblings taking action against her over a family trust.
Marks has been accused of embellishing all or at least parts of her tennis career. She claims to have played tennis at Wimbledon and the French Open, yet no evidence of this can be found.
She took to Facebook on Sunday to list her connections to South Africa and at a glance, she may have been reacting to reports on her lack of qualifications.
According to Marks, she has a “background in [the] SA political, economic, social, and media landscape”. She also “studied at Wits [University]”, speaks “fluent Xhosa”, and “passed the Hoertaalbond Eksamen in Afrikaans”.
And adding some information seemingly not related to her possible future role as ambassador, she laid claim to being a “businesswoman for 30 years, a mom for 37 years, a wife for 42 years”.
Trump’s relationship with South Africa is currently strained since he tweeted that he is looking to “closely study” the country’s land situation and farm murders.
At a conference in Limpopo, an angry President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Trump “can keep his America; when I meet him I will tell him”.