Ramaphosa survives Trump ambush over 'white genocide'

BBC News

22-05-2025

Donald Trump has proved to be the political Rottweiler of right-wing Afrikaner groups, taking their fight to South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa.They were quick to celebrate the US president's ambush of Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, with the Solidarity Movement - which had toured the US to lobby the Trump administration - saying it welcomed the fact that South Africa's "enormous problems have been placed on the international stage".Ernst Roets, a leading personality on the Afrikaner right, showed his admiration for the US president. "Donald Trump made history today," he said in a post on X, before thanking him for showing videos of firebrand opposition politician Julius Malema singing "Shoot the Boer (Afrikaner); Shoot the farmer" - and newspaper headlines of the killing of white farmers. Solidarity's Jaco Kleynhans went further, saying Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for "putting the farm murder crisis on the international agenda".But for leading Afrikaner political columnist Pieter du Toit the ambush showed that "months and years of exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation fed into the American right-wing ecosystem by a range of South African activists had hit its mark".
Like many South Africans he praised Ramaphosa for his measured handling of the encounter in the White House.Many are angry with the right-wing groups, saying they have shown a lack of patriotism by lobbying the Trump administration to take a tough line against the country.Such critics point to the fact that South Africa has a government of national unity - made up of 10 parties from across the racial and ideological divide to tackle the nation's myriad problems - from the high crime levels that affect all races and classes, to an unemployment rate of 32%, with black people struggling the most to find jobs.For most South Africans, the "rainbow nation" was on display at the White House.The government delegation included South Africa's most senior white politician, John Steenhuisen - the agriculture minister who leads South Africa's second-biggest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).He acknowledged South Africa had a "real safety problem", adding that it required "a lot of effort to get on top of it"."It is going to require more policing resources," he added.But he dismissed the view that most white farmers were fleeing: "Certainly, the majority of South Africa's commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work."Trump's video amplified the role of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party in South African politics by showing its leader singing the "Shoot the Boer".The party advocates the nationalisation of land, and Malema revels in chanting it at his political rallies - with Trump demanding to know why no action had been taken against him. The old protest song was once an anti-apartheid anthem, and Afrikaner lobby groups have tried to get it banned. But South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that a "reasonably well-informed person" would understand that when "protest songs are sung, even by politicians, the words are not meant to be understood literally, nor is the gesture of shooting to be understood as a call to arms or violence".Instead, the song was a "provocative way" of advancing the EFF's political agenda - which was to end "land and economic injustice".
Ramaphosa pointed out to Trump that South Africa was a democracy - and while the government was "completely against" what Malema does, the EFF had a right to exist under the constitutionThe EFF fell to fourth spot in last year's parliamentary election, with Ramaphosa refusing to give Malema political oxygen by making a deal with him to form a coalition government after last year's parliamentary election failed to produce an outright winner. Steenhuisen told Trump that the DA, a centre-right party which stands for a free market economy, joined the government to keep the EFF out, and to help tackle South Africa's problems. "This government, working together, needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy and shut the door forever on that rebel [Malema] getting through the doors of Union Buildings [the seat of government]," he said.
'Uncomfortable to watch'
Steenhuisen and Ramaphosa hold the middle-ground in South African politics - the Afrikaner right-wing and the EFF are at the extremes.Ramaphosa promised to champion unity, invoking the name of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela - the symbol of racial reconciliation in South Africa after the end of white-minority rule in 1994. But some Afrikaners feel they can no longer live in South Africa, and Trump has offered them refugee status. Nearly 60 of them have been resettled in the US. Trump has given a boost to the right-wing, with some of them gathering outside the US embassy in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, in February with placards that read: "Make South Africa Great Again" - an adaptation of Trump's "Make America Great Again". South Africa's Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso acknowledged that the meeting in the Oval Office was "uncomfortable to watch"."There is no genocide in South Africa... There is crime in South Africa like in other countries and this crime affects many people, " he told the BBC's Newshour programme.Nyhontso applauded Ramaphosa for keeping his composure, rather than firing back at Trump when he ambushed him, with guns blazing.
Some also commended the South African president for his tactics - bringing along famous Afrikaner golfers to the meeting to defuse tensions.When invited to talk, Ernie Els took out his South African passport to prove his patriotism - and spoke of his respect for Mandela after he managed to unite the country at the end of apartheid - but said he wanted to see South Africa flourish with America's help.Retief Goosen perhaps added more fuel to the fire, speaking of how difficult it was for his brother to farm outside the northern town of Polokwane - explaining how he faced a "constant battle" with people trying to "burn the farm down and to chase you away".Though he ended by saying that despite their fear of crime, "the guys live a great life, despite what's going on".Billionaire businessman Johann Rupert, also an Afrikaner, pointed out that the highest murder rate in South Africa was in the townships of Cape Town, where most residents are black or coloured - as mixed-race people are known in South Africa - and are at the mercy of violent gangs.While Zingiswa Losi, president of South Africa's largest trade union, told Trump about the devastating situation in rural areas "where the black majority are"."You will see women, elderly, being raped, being killed, being murdered," she said. She urged the delegations to address the problem through trade - and creating employment."The problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime."It is a sentiment with which most South Africans would agree.
More on South African-US relations:
Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer?Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over StarlinkIs it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?What's really driving Trump's fury with South Africa?
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