Visiting Trump, the South African president escalation manages to prevent humility

During a tense meeting in the White House, US President Donald Trump gave his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa a wipe. He beat the president traveled to the United States with-according to Trump-evidence of a white genocide that would take place in South Africa. Although Ramaphosa has always denied this, he carefully chose his answers. That’s how he managed to prevent escalation.

According to the planning, the delegations of South Africa and the United States would have a ten-minute conversation in the presence of the press, but that ended in an hour. In the first instance, the meeting went well for the South African delegation. Ramaphosa, who had brought two professional South African golfers to the White House to spawn Trump, seemed to have learned from the escalated meeting between Ukrainian president Zensky and the American president in February.

He did everything he could to put Trump in the spotlight and to thank the president for all the help that the US once provided to South Africa. A first sneer from Trump, who said that the South African president « is seen as a bit controversial in some circles, » Ramaphosa ignored.

During the round of questions, however, Trump opted for the frontal attack, by playing a mounted video showing proof of the white genocide in South Africa. The video shows two opposition politicians – Trump calls the two unjustly representatives of the government – who sing the song ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the White Farmer’ during campaign meetings. According to a South African court, the song dates from the anti-apartheid time and does not classify as hate speech.

Trump also came up with a thick stack of printed A4 pages, on which, according to the American president, the photos of « thousands of murdered white farmers » « . Then then showed a video with what he thought is ‘thousands of graves’ of murdered white farmers, Ramaphosa fell the accusation seriously. « Do you know where this is, sir the president? » he asks. « I want to know that and then I will investigate. »

Trade mission

The diplomatic relationship between the two countries has not been so bad since the end of apartheid. Naast de ongefundeerde beschuldiging van witte genocide, beweert Trump ook dat Ramaphosa’s regering land confisqueert van witte boeren, verklaarden de VS de Zuid-Afrikaanse ambassadeur persona-non-grata, hekelt Trump de genocide-rechtszaak die Zuid-Afrika voert tegen Israël bij het Internationaal Gerechtshof en heeft de Amerikaanse president Zuid-Afrika een handelsheffing opgelegd van 31 percent.

The encounter with Trump was a chance for Ramaphosa to take the grievances away, although the South African president, himself, saw a businessman, mainly as a trade mission. Just before his departure, he said to the press in Pretoria: « We are looking forward to a positive meeting, with a good result for the jobs in our country and good trade relationships to normalize our relationship again. » He also said he wanted to make mutual investments possible.

He also seems to go to a trading deal with Elon Musk, who wants to join the South African market with his Satellites-based internet service Starlink. However, Musk does not want to comply with a law that determines that foreign companies must have a local partner owned by Zwarte Zuid Africans. The law must reduce the racial economic inequality that dates from apartheid.

Musk, himself South African and present at the meeting as part of the American delegation, labeled this as discrimination. The Bloomberg news agency reported on Wednesday that the South African delegation would now want to conclude a deal with Musk in which Starlink can also settle in the country without a local partner.

After the first uncomfortable meeting, the parties still speak behind closed doors. There is a lot at stake for South Africa. The country is struggling with a struggling economy and towering unemployment. Reason enough not to want to strike the second largest trading partner against the hair. But South Africa is not completely powerless to the US. For Americans, South Africa is the largest trading partner in Africa and the country is a gateway to the continent. Moreover, South Africa is the world’s largest exporter of platinum, a raw material that the US needs for the car industry.

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