US President Donald Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at a meeting at the Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. This claim is widely believed.
Here are some of the key moments in the meeting:
Ramaphosa brought a book with a golfer
The South African leader appeared to have arrived at an oval office in hopes of repairing tricky relations between the US and South Africa.
Trump launched the meeting by calling Ramaphosa “a little less respected, in some circles, in other circles, in a bit more respected, in all of us being fair.”
Trump’s love for golf is no secret, and perhaps hoping to ease tensions, Ramaphosa brought in two South African top golfers, Ernie Elles and Lechief Goosen. “These two are incredible,” Trump said.
Ramaphosa also presents Trump with a repository of South African golf courses, compiled into a book weighing 14kg (31 pounds) and features writing for ELS. Johann Rupert, South Africa’s wealthiest white man, was also part of the Ramaphosa delegation.
Trump denounced South Africa for “white genocide”
During the meeting, Trump repeatedly alleged that there was a genocide against white farmers in South Africa, an allegation rejected by Ramaphosa.
Earlier this month, 59 white “refugees” flew from South Africa to the United States as part of a relocation plan for white South Africans devised by the Trump administration.
Trump told Ramaphosa that these are white farmers fleeing the violence directed at them in South Africa. “We have a lot of people who feel they are being persecuted. They’re coming to the US,” Trump said. “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land has been confiscated, and in many cases they are killed.”
However, Ramaphosa denied allegations of “white genocide” in South Africa. “If there was an African farmer genocide, I can bet on you, these three gentlemen wouldn’t be here,” the South African president mentioned Els, Goosen and Rupert.
Murders in South Africa are problematic, but the majority of the victims are black and are targeted by burglars, experts aren’t for political reasons.
South African historian Saul Dubou, a professor of federal history at Cambridge University, told Al Jazeera, “There is no merit in Trump’s fantasy claims of white genocide.” “South Africa is a violent country and economically one of the most unequal societies in the world. Violence is a crime, not politics, but racial injustice inevitably forms part of the context.”
Dabou suggested that Trump may be more angry about the South African massacre against Israel, filed with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 in connection with the war with Gaza.
The Trump administration welcomes “refugees” from South Africa, but simultaneously eliminates the protection of people from other countries. Since Trump took office in January, Homeland Security Secretary Christi Noem has revoked protections from previously granted deportation to more than 800,000 people who have fled the conflict zone or danger in Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan and Cameroon.
“Down the light”: Trump displays video showing attack
Trump claimed he had video and photo evidence supporting his “white genocide” allegations.
At one point during the meeting, the US president was turning through a pile of printed news clippings. “Death, death, death,” he said.
He published a specific article in a publication called American Thinkers entitled “Let’s talk about Africa. This is where we take you.” While the article mentions South Africa, Trump said the thumbnail image showed white farmers buried there. However, the thumbnail proved to be a screen grab from a news clip about violence against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Trump then asked to dim the oval office lights, and a five-minute video montage was displayed on the screen. The video includes South Africa’s opposition figure, Julius Malema, leader of the Left Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) Party, singing the apartheid song Dubul ‘Ibhunu (“Kill the Boer”). The song’s title is often translated as “Kill the White Farmer.”
Dubow said some populists are promoting “inflammatory songs” such as “Kill the Boers” in South Africa. “This may or may not mean literally,” he told Al Jazeera. “President Ramaphosa and the ANC [Ramaphosa’s party, African National Congress] Do not support such rhetoric. ”
Then Trump was attacked again. “You allow them to take the land,” Trump told Ramaphosa.
“No one can take the land,” Ramaphosa said.
“When they take the land, they kill the white farmers. And when they kill the white farmers, nothing happens to them,” Trump replied.
“There is a crime in our country. Unfortunately, the people killed through criminal activities are not only white, but most of them are black,” Ramaphosa said. Trump cut him off and said, “Farmers aren’t black.”
Talk about South Africa’s Land Reform Act
In January, Ramaphosa signed a new land expropriation law aimed at correcting the mistakes of the apartheid era in South Africa.
Under the new law, the government has the authority to seize privately owned land from people of all races for public purposes and for public interest. The law provides for payment of compensation, but in certain cases it also allows for uncompensated seizures. The law replaced the 1975 law, which was criticized as lacking a clear compensation plan and legally ambiguous.
White South Africans are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of mostly Dutch settlers or English-speaking descendants of British colonialists.
Until the 1990s, white Africans ruled the country under a system of apartheid, a system that excluded the majority of South African black people.
Although apartheid officially ended in 1994, some of South Africa’s most successful business and farmland owners are white, with more than half of the country’s black population being classified as poor. White South Africans make up about 7% of the population but own more than 70% of the land.
“The long history of colonialism and land confiscation in South Africa has not been addressed. Historical racial injustice is felt enthusiastic. White farmers own most of the productive land, 30 years from 1994,” Dabou said.
“White farmers, particularly large producers, have generally done well in the post-apartheid era. They are probably more vulnerable to American tariffs than physical attacks,” Dabou said.
In February, Trump frozen aid to South Africa, saying the new Land Act allows the government to seize land from minority Africans without compensation.
However, as of mid-May, no land was forcibly taken away by the South African government without compensation under the new law.
The Trump administration has also broadly reduced the operation of the US Organization for International Development (USAID) and stripped away aid organizations around the world for foreign aid. This has put more than 8,000 workers on South Africa’s National HIV Programme down.
“South Africans are keenly aware of the withdrawal of US support for the HIV/AIDS program,” Dubow said. “The key question is the future of Agoa [African Growth and Opportunity Act] A contract signed in 2000. This allows for exports to the US without tariffs. He added that in 2024, 32 sub-Saharan countries will be eligible for Agoa’s profits.
“Another indicator is whether Trump will attend South Africa’s upcoming G20.”
Fishing for a trade contract
As Ramaphosa had promised South Africans to present a trade deal to the United States, he spoke about the history of economic cooperation between Washington and Pretoria, and about hanging access to “rare earth minerals.”
“We have important minerals that we want to promote growth in your own economy, so we offer them, including rare earth minerals,” Ramaphosa told Trump.
South Africa has a large reserve of gold, Platinum group metals, chromium ore, manganese ore, zirconium, vanadium and titanium.
Important minerals are important for the production of clean energy and machinery, as well as for the production of technologies such as mobile phones, solar panels, and electric vehicles. In March, Trump summoned wartime authority to command federal agencies to identify mines and government-owned land that could be exploited to boost the production of critical minerals.
South Africa is one of many countries eager to build new trade contracts with the United States to avoid Trump’s threat of punishing tariffs. On April 2, what Trump called “liberation day,” he slapped 31% mutual tariffs in South Africa, now in a 90-day hiatus. Universal US tariffs on overseas goods, including South Africa, remain.
In 2023, 7% of South Africa’s exports were sent to the US, and 6.4% of imports came from the US.
The two countries did not confirm the trade agreement at their meeting on Wednesday, but Ramaphosa later told reporters that the debate was a “great success.” He added that he has presented a framework for a trade deal with Trump, and the two agreed to continue discussions to get a sense of the deal.
Not the first such ambush
This was not the first time a foreign leader had faced an adversarial atmosphere in his oval office.
On February 28th, an oval office meeting between Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelensky and Trump became sour. During the meeting, President Trump and his vice president JD Vance publicly accused Zelensky of not fully grateful for the US support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
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