‘Dim the light': Ramaphosa recalls what Trump said just before the ‘ambush' at White House

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27-05-2025

South African President uses humour to recount tense Oval Office meeting with Trump, amid strained ties over trade, aid freeze, and false genocide claims read more
US President Donald Trump shows documents claiming genocide against Afrikaners to South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office on Wednesday. AP File
Days after his tense Oval Office meeting with US President Donald Trump last week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday addressed the incident for the first time, responding with a hint of humour during his first public appearance since the encounter.
According to a Bloomberg report, as Ramaphosa entered an infrastructure conference in Cape Town on Tuesday, the lights were dimmed evoking the US president's call to turn the lights down in the Oval Office to cue up a video montage that amplified his false claims of a White genocide in South Africa.
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'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark,' Bloomberg quoted Ramaphosa as saying to the audience.
'For a moment, I wondered what is this? Is it happening to me again?' he added.
Ramaphosa visited Washington last week in a bid to convince Trump to exempt South Africa from the full impact of his broad trade tariffs.
The United States remains South Africa's second-largest trading partner, after China. Although the meeting began on a cordial note, Trump caught Ramaphosa off guard just minutes in by playing a video promoting his controversial views.
'At that point I was seated very nicely. I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting with this man, and I suddenly hear him say, 'dim the lights',' Ramaphosa was quoted as saying, reliving the moment for his Cape Town audience.
'Some people have said this was an ambush. I was bemused. I was there thinking what is happening?' he was quoted as saying.
The Oval Office meeting marked the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders, following months of strained relations.
Tensions escalated after Trump froze US aid to South Africa over his claims of violent attacks targeting White farmers. He also publicly criticised Pretoria's genocide case against Israel — a key US ally — at the International Court of Justice.
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The meeting came shortly after 49 South Africans of Afrikaner descent were flown to the US on a plane chartered by Washington and granted refugee status.
The move was linked to Trump's controversial assertion that White Afrikaner farmers are facing genocide and land seizures by the South African state — claims not supported by official data, reported Bloomberg.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, there have been no state-sanctioned land seizures, and police statistics consistently show that young Black men are disproportionately affected by violent crime.
Despite being blindsided by Trump's video during the meeting, Ramaphosa described the visit as a diplomatic success, noting that it opened the door to discussions on a potential new trade agreement between the two countries.
He also expressed optimism that Trump would attend the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg this November, where South Africa will pass the forum's leadership to the US.
With inputs from agencies