South African president escapes a Zelensky moment at the White House

Middle East Eye

21-05-2025

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's first visit to the White House under this Trump administration on Wednesday was, as he insisted, meant to "reset" relations between the two countries.
And it certainly began with friendly overtones, before devolving into disagreement over what US President Donald Trump has termed as the "genocide" of white South Africans. Earlier this month, dozens of them were granted refugee status in the US and flown there on the dime of the American taxpayer.
At times, the meeting became so tense that Ramaphosa could have ended up with a fate similar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose now infamous White House visit in March turned into an ambush by Vice President JD Vance, and a shouting match, before he was escorted out without even being served any lunch.
World leaders have since been keen on being prepared for all outcomes in an Oval Office meeting that is largely televised and turned into an impromptu and sometimes chaotic press conference.
For Ramaphosa, trade was at the top of the agenda. Like most nations now facing US tariffs, Pretoria is seeking a new trade deal with Washington, given that it is the top African exporter to the US.
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Trump made it clear to reporters that it was Ramaphosa who called him and asked for the visit.
The US is South Africa's second-largest trading partner after China.
Ramaphosa's delegation to the White House meeting included not just cabinet members, but a trade unionist and two of the most famous South African golfers, all in a bid to both appeal to the US president - a lover and purveyor of golf courses - while also making the point that it is Black Africans that are most negatively impacted by the remnants of Apartheid-era laws.
Things appeared to be going smoothly until a reporter asked why the US is accepting Afrikaners as refugees while it turns away Afghans and Venezuelans.
'White genocide' ambush
At least 59 white South Africans have been granted refugee status in the US, with 70,000 others having expressed interest in the process, according to The South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA.
For the Trump administration, the issue stems from a land reform measure that Ramaphosa signed into law earlier this year, in a bid, he said, to remedy the lingering effects of Apartheid. It allows the government to expropriate privately held land without compensation when it is deemed in the public interest.
On Wednesday, Trump said 'white South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws", and that he had images of the attacks that proved "genocide" was taking place. He then proceeded to hold up those images for the press assembled in the room.
While Ramaphosa himself acknowledged the high rate of crime in his country, there is no known evidence of a genocide of white South Africans taking place.
Ramaphosa - likely having learned from watching Zelensky and other leaders in that very spot - did not interrupt Trump to argue the point, but waited for him to finish before saying, "People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity, are not only white people. The majority of them are Black people."
Trump browbeating Zelensky offers rare window into how US wields power Read More »
When a South African reporter then asked Trump what it would take for him to acknowledge that there is no white genocide, Trump hesitated for a moment before Ramaphosa jumped in and said, "It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends," and he pointed to the two white pro golfers he brought with him, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
Instead of ending it there to move on to the private portion of the meeting, Trump pushed back, and in a surprise move, asked for the lights to be turned down so Ramaphosa could watch a video that allegedly proves white farmers are being systematically killed.
That video, shared by the White House on X, was a compilation of clips of firebrand Black South African communist party leader Julius Malema calling for "killing" whites as part of the "revolution" that must happen in the country.
Additional video was also shown, which Trump said was land filled with graves of white South Africans. For more than four awkward minutes, Ramaphosa hardly looked at the screen, choosing to look around the room and at the floor as Trump watched the video intently.
When it was finished, Ramaphosa asked where those gravesites were located.
'I'd like to know where that is, because this I've never seen.'
Vance chimed in: 'So you denounce that type of language in the video?'
'Oh yes, we've always done so,' Ramaphosa said. 'We are completely opposed to that.'
The Gaza ICJ case
Washington's problem with Pretoria goes much further than its close relationship with China and crimes against whites.
In December 2023, South Africa brought a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for its war on Gaza, which had been going on for two months at the time, and was indicative of a process of ethnic cleansing, human rights groups had said.
US grants dozens of white South Africans refugee status Read More »
The US fiercely opposed the case under the Biden administration, and maintained that policy under Trump, even expelling South Africa's ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, back in March.
Israel has been heavily lobbying US lawmakers to push South Africa to drop its case entirely.
Israeli diplomats were also instructed to reach out to South African diplomats in the US and tell them their country would "pay a heavy price" if it did not change its policy towards Israel.
On Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump if he expected South Africa to drop its ICJ case, but there was surprisingly no definitive answer.
"I don't expect anything to be honest... I don't know. The case is a lot of anger there, tremendous anger," he said. "We'll see what the ruling says."
Ramaphosa himself has long been vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause, and has also opted to strengthen relations with the global south as part of the BRICS group - a kind of antithesis to the G7.
In Trump's executive order that granted refugee status to white South Africans, he also accused South Africa of 'reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements'.