Zuma blasts Ramaphosa's US mission: ‘South Africa's problems can't be fixed by outsiders'
US President Donald Trump and President Cyril Ramaphosa during a recent official visit to Washington.
Image: The Presidency
Former President Jacob Zuma has issued a stinging rebuke of President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent diplomatic visit to Washington, asserting that South Africa should not rely on foreign powers to resolve its domestic challenges.
Addressing supporters of the MK Party in KwaMaphumulo, KZN, at a community gathering over the weekend, Zuma condemned the trip as a sign of desperation and a search for external approval.
'We refuse to have our problems fixed by the US we don't even know,' Zuma said, emphasising that the country had to fix its issues.
Ramaphosa, accompanied by senior government officials, visited Washington in an effort to reset bilateral relations with the US following a period of diplomatic tension.
The visit came in the wake of lobbying efforts by groups such as AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement, which alleged systematic discrimination against white Afrikaners.
The government has consistently rejected as unfounded and inflammatory
However, the visit followed an onslaught by Trump and his administration on South Africa's foreign and domestic equity laws, straining relations between the two countries to an all-time low.
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During talks, the delegation rebuffed claims of genocide, calling on Trump to assist with technology-driven reinforcements to help arrest SA's escalating crime levels.
The SA delegation was hit with a cinematic surprise when Trump asked one of his staff in the Oval Office to dim the lights and switch the TV to watch a mini-documentary about the alleged genocide.
Trump played a video montage of EFF leader Julius Malema chanting 'Kill the Boer,' subsequently questioning why he had not been arrested for using the controversial liberation-era slogan.
Last week, Ramaphosa said they would not arrest Malema for the chant, labelling it as a liberation song.
'We are a very proud, sovereign country that has its laws, that has its processes, and we take into account what the constitutional courts also decided.
'The slogan, kill the Boer, kill the farmer, is a liberation chant and slogan.
'That's not meant to be a message that elicits or calls upon anyone to go and be killed. And that is what our court decided,' Ramaphosa said.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
IOL Politics
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