President Cyril Ramaphosa weathered a diplomatic storm on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump blindsided him during their Oval Office meeting by playing a video montage depicting opposition leader Julius Malema making inflammatory statements against white South Africans.
The unexpected move came just moments after Ramaphosa refuted the white genocide narrative in South Africa.
Trump, however, insisted that the US had been inundated with reports of attacks on white farmers and directed aides to dim the lights before playing the footage.
The videos featured Malema speaking about land occupations and making controversial remarks, including references to revolutionary violence and targeting white South Africans.
Trump made no mention of the African nation’s long-standing epidemic of violence against both white and black people, nor its violent and discriminatory history of white rule.
The tense exchange followed a South African journalist’s inquiry into what it would take for Trump to be convinced that there was no white genocide in the country.
Ramaphosa responded that Trump should listen to accounts from South Africans, including some of his own white friends present in the delegation.
A major coup for Ramaphosa was that he had included in his delegation a group of respected white South Africans, some of whom are personal friends of Trump.
These included billionaire businessman Johann Rupert and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen who corroborated Ramaphosa’s views about the absence of genocide against white South Africans.
Despite the contentious discussion, Ramaphosa later reassured journalists that the genocide debate did not dominate the private meeting between Trump and himself.
Instead, he said the two leaders focused on regional conflicts in Africa and Eastern Europe, trade relations and strengthening bilateral cooperation.
However, the two leaders did not touch on Israel and South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“Our objective in coming here was to reset relations between the two countries and to reposition our relations, which had become contaminated by some of the issues that had been raised during the engagement, or what many people thought was also contaminating relations; for instance, the ICJ case and Ukraine, Russia and all that,” Ramaphosa said.
He noted that his delegation had pushed for increased US investment and a more constructive approach to bilateral relations, particularly in trade.
One of the key outcomes of the visit was Trump’s consideration of attending the G20 summit later this year, an issue Ramaphosa stressed as crucial for global economic engagement.
The South African president described the meeting as a step toward improving diplomatic ties, with both nations committing to continued engagement and dialogue on trade and investment.
JN/APA