Trump's South African spotlight

Newsroom

26-05-2025

Cathy is a 10th-generation white South African who moved to New Zealand 28 years ago, following the hijacking and killing of a man in her work car park.
Her parents, dyed-in-the-wool South Africans, followed her 10 years later, after someone broke into their home and left knives in the ceiling.
Today, from the safety of her Auckland home, she backs US President Donald Trump, who stunned the world last week with his orchestrated ambush of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
Trump played videos that he claimed proved genocide is being committed against white people, driving farmers to flee to the US.
The unexpected stunt turned the diplomatic setting into a stage for Trump's contention that white South Africans are being persecuted.
'I think that Donald Trump is a very astute gentleman,' says Cathy, who didn't want her last name used.
'And I believe that what he has intended to do with his reaction and his approach to the situation in South Africa is to put a spotlight on it.
'Media companies around the world wouldn't be talking about it unless he'd done that. So, let's give him some credit.'
She says the current South African government isn't standing up to the opposition, which is making threats to different racial communities.
In January, Ramaphosa also signed a bill into law allowing the state to seize land without compensation.
'A lot of the farmers and the Afrikaans community feel reasonably threatened by what is happening in the country,' Cathy says.
'I know of people who have had to run for their lives, leaving their farms. I know of people who live in New Zealand who have had to return home because their families have been murdered. It is real, it is true, and I don't believe it's being reported on.'
Trump's meeting with Ramaphosa in the White House was billed as a friendly conversation about trade and regional cooperation, but it quickly turned sour with the South African leader visibly blindsided by the white genocide ambush, which critics have labelled 'inappropriate and undiplomatic'.
Robert Patman, professor of international relations at Otago University, tells The Detail the stunt was performative, targeting MAGA supporters.
'I was appalled,' he says. 'It seems to me that America has humiliated itself – at least its president has humiliated America in the eyes of many people around the world.
'This is the second time that Mr Trump has applied 'gotcha' diplomacy, where he has ambushed someone in the Oval Office. It struck me as thoroughly unprofessional.
'If he had genuine concerns about white genocide, then he would have sent the documents in advance to the South African government to form the basis of a discussion … a discussion that would normally happen behind closed doors on sensitive issues.
'There is no basis in the allegations that Mr Trump has made. The whole thing was performative, and it may have won him some applause amongst MAGA supporters – Make America Great Again supporters – but it certainly hasn't won any international respect for the Trump administration.'
He suggests that South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice was another factor in the attack.
A number of South African billionaires, including Elon Musk, have Trump's ear, Patman says.
Earlier this month, a group of 59 white South Africans arrived in the United States after being granted refugee status by the White House, which has fast tracked the processing of Afrikaner refugees but paused refugee applications for other nationalities.
This follows Trump freezing aid to South Africa in February over claims it was mistreating its minority white population.
Ramaphosa has vehemently denied all the claims.
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