Johannesburg, South Africa — When a massive South African billionaire mining president landed in Washington and met the US president who had turned to billionaire real estate tycoon, it had deals in mind.
Since Donald Trump took office this year and cut off aid to South Africa, tensions have been growing between the US and its African trade allies, with a “white genocide” taking place there and repeated false accusations that Africans began welcoming refugees.
At a meeting between Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday, the South African president focused on trade and investment, starting by emphasizing longstanding cooperation between the two countries in line with a statement made by the South African presidency that Ramaphosa would present a trade deal to the United States.
But Trump responded with a well-prepared redirect, which South African media and analysts described as “ambush” and “blinded” Ramaphosa.
In a printout of news stories about the white victims of the South African murders and video of the fire brand opposing politician Julius Malema singing Boer, Trump claimed that white farmers were being targeted and murdered.
The team Ramaphosa joined him on his work visit. This included four white South Africans, two golf legends, the country’s wealthiest man and the Agriculture Minister, but they all reaffirmed Ramaphosa’s fact that whites were not specifically targeted while violence was widespread.
“There’s a real safety issue in South Africa, but no one wants to get it candy coat,” said John Steenhuisen, Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Democratic Alliance Party, which is part of South Africa’s governing coalition.
“It’s true that most South African commercial and smallholder farmers really want to stay in South Africa and make it work,” said the minister, who is African himself. “Thousands of white farmers claimed they were fleeing South Africa,” Trump said.
Steenhuisen added that the people in the video Trump showed were leaders of the opposition minority parties, and his party joined forces with Ramaphosa “with precision to protect those people from power.”
“Lion’s den”
The meeting began with a heart. From there, Trump praised South African golfers, including the famous Ernie Elle and Letoyf Goosen, who were part of the mandate. They both pleaded with Trump to strengthen trade to boost South Africa’s economy.
The mandate also included South Africa’s wealthiest man, Johann Rupert, a gorgeous merchandise mogul, and an African. He rebutted allegations of racial persecution against white minorities, saying that blacks are more frequent victims, although they are highly criminal.
“We have too many deaths, but it’s all over the place. It’s not just white farmers,” Rupert told Trump.
Ramaphosa said that according to his cool media and Observers, the South African president chose to remain calm, patient and light-hearted, even in light of Trump’s attacks.
He speaks to trade saying that South Africa needs economic investment from its allies, and sits almost blankly while the video is playing, occasionally stretching his head and watching it.
Ramaphosa entered the “lion’s nest” and met an ambush, but he remained calm, said Sanusha Naidu, a political analyst in South Africa.
“Ramaphosa and the delegation didn’t allow them to fall into an emotional response. That’s important. They made Trump feel like he had the upper hand in the meeting,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that it “may have gotten worse” considering the story from Trump before Ramaphosa arrived.
When asked by a reporter if he wanted to resolve the impasse between the US and South Africa, Trump said he was open to it.
“I hope it has to be resolved. It has to be resolved,” he said, adding that if it is not resolved, it will be the “end of the country.”
Reset related
Before the two leaders met on Wednesday, Ramaphosa’s office said its purpose was a “reset” relationship, particularly as the United States is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner after China.
“Whether we like it or not, we need to join our hips and talk to them,” the South African president said before his trip.
Christopher Ishike, a political scientist at the University of Pretoria, told Al Jazeera that direct involvement between leaders is important given their tense relationships between the countries.
“This is an opportunity for South Africa to correct any misinformation made by President Trump and try to reset trade ties between the two countries,” he said.
Isike pointed out that the president’s background as a businessman can provide a common foundation for discussing mutually beneficial transactions.
“Ramaphosa’s rich friend was also Trump’s rich friend, which may have helped to promote the meeting,” Ishike added.
The observer said a common foundation and head of levels will be useful as leaders continued private consultations from the media on Wednesday.
Before the visit, Ramaphosa claimed that while Trump was a deal maker, he was also skilled at dealing, and even made a joke about the possibility of playing a round of golf at his US counterpart.
However, Washington has criticized Pretoria for many issues since Trump took office. This continued at the meeting on Wednesday.
Trump focused on white farmers, especially Africans, who were descendants of the Dutch settlers who founded apartheid. He claimed that they were killed for their race despite evidence that attacks and murders are common in all groups in the country.
Trump also mentioned the South African Land Reform Act, which allows land in public interest to be taken without compensation in exceptional circumstances to rectify apartheid fraud. Pretoria said white land was not taken, but the US said the law unfairly targeted a small number of white South Africans, the majority landowners.
Despite Pretoria’s consistent attempt to correct false claims, the Trump administration has pushed for a plan to take Africans as refugees. The first group arrived last week. He is also cutting back on aid, including important support for life-saving HIV programmes to South Africa.
Additionally, there is concern that Trump may not attend groups of 20 summits to be held in South Africa in November, and that his government may not update the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the major US trade law supporting the economy of sub-Saharan Africa. It will expire in September.
Trade and Investment
Before meeting Wednesday, Ramaphosa said strengthening trade ties between the two countries was the main motivation for their trip to Washington, D.C.
“We want to leave the US with really good trade deals, investment promotion. We invest in the US and they invest in us. We want to strengthen those relationships. We want to integrate the relationships between the two countries,” he said.
This week, South Africa’s Ministers of Trade and Agriculture Parks Tau and Steenhuisen met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer to present the first draft of the trade agreement.
In 2024, total commodity trade between the US and South Africa was $20.5 billion. This included $5.8 billion in US exports to South Africa and $14.7 billion in South Africa to US$14.7 billion.
However, some observers said South Africa could offer billionaires and close Trump ally Elon Musk, at the heart of a potential trade deal.
These laws seek to correct past fraud that pushed black people into poverty and require members of previously underprivileged groups to invest 30% of the stock investments on a particular size.
Speaking at the Doha Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk argued that despite experts explaining that he was trying to promote racial justice, he argued that his claims about the law he allegedly skewed against white people.
“All races must be on equal footing in South Africa, and that’s right. Don’t replace a set of racist laws with another racist law.
“I was born in South Africa, but I am not black and am in an absurd situation where I am not licensed to run Starlink,” he argued.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, White House officials said Trump from Reuters is likely to tell Ramaphosa that all US companies in South Africa should exempt “racial requirements.”
Opposition parties have threatened legal action after news that Malema’s party, Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF), is considering providing regulatory guarantees to Musk’s Starlink. The EFF says the move is unconstitutional, indicating that Ramaphosa is willing to compromise the country’s sovereignty by “masking Musk and Trump’s inflated egos.”
Ishke said he doubted that while trade concessions were being debated, the South African government would abandon the law to appease Musk.
“I would have been surprised that Starlink refused to follow South Africa’s transformation law, which requires 30% of black ownership of foreign companies,” he said.
“Genocide” claims
Meanwhile, in private talks, Ramaphosa and Trump were also expected to discuss foreign policy issues, including the outlook for peace between Russia and Ukraine, South Africa’s support for Palestine, and its massacre against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Some political observers said Pretoria is partly in the US crosshairs because of its actions against Washington’s key allies.
Patrick Bond, a sociology professor at the University of Johannesburg, predicted before talks that the US might offer to withdraw its “white genocide” claims in exchange for South Africa’s lawsuit at the ICJ.
South Africa is trying to hold Israel accountable for the attacks on Gaza, which has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians since October 2023. The United States is Israel’s most powerful ally and arms supplier.
“We are very reasonable when it comes to discussing global and geopolitical issues. We will put the status of South Africa first, and the status of foreign policy will be clear,” Ramaphosa said before the meeting.
As Gaza genocide incidents against Israel continue in the Hague, US allegations of South Africa’s widely discredited “white genocide” continue to follow the state’s leadership.
Before Trump and Ramaphosa retreated to a private meeting on Wednesday, reporters asked the US president if they had decided whether genocide was being committed in South Africa. “I’m not determined,” he replied.
White Genocide’s unfounded claims were that analyst Paolo von Silach, president of the Institute for Global Policy in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera that he “takes on a life of its own.”
It would be difficult for Ramaphosa and Trump to rebound after an “ambush” in the oval office, he said.
“We know that Elon Musk certainly incited this story. [about a white genocide]and he is probably not the only one,” von Silach said. “It’s going to be difficult for Trump to say. ‘Yeah, sorry. I was misunderstood.’
Source link
