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Straits Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
South Africa's Ramaphosa recalls his bemusement at Trump Oval Office encounter
President Cyril Ramaphosa (left) of South Africa and President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington on May 21. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES CAPE TOWN - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laughed off US President Donald Trump's Oval Office ambush, in his first direct comments since returning from the encounter with his American counterpart last week. The lights were dimmed as Mr Ramaphosa entered an infrastructure conference in Cape Town on May 27, 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. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark,' Mr Ramaphosa told the audience. 'For a moment, I wondered what is this? Is it happening to me again?' Mr Ramaphosa visited Washington last week to persuade Mr Trump to spare South Africa from the full brunt of his sweeping trade tariffs. The US is the country's second-largest trading partner after China. While the meeting between the two leaders began with pleasantries, Mr Trump surprised his visitor with the video after a few minutes. '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',' Mr Ramaphosa recalled, 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?' The face-to-face Oval Office meeting marked the first between the leaders following months of tension, after Mr Trump froze aid to South Africa over his claims about attacks on white farmers. He has also criticised Pretoria's genocide case against Israel – a key US ally – at the International Court of Justice. The encounter also took place after 49 South Africans of Afrikaner descent were flown to the US on a plane charted by Washington and granted refugee status on the back of Mr Trump's claim that white Afrikaner farmers are victims of a genocide and the state is seizing their land. There have been no official land seizures in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, while police statistics show young black men bear the brunt of violent crime. Notwithstanding the video, Mr Ramaphosa declared the visit a success for opening a path to consider a new trade deal between the two countries. He also voiced confidence that Mr Trump will attend the Group of 20 summit in November in Johannesburg, which South Africa is hosting before it hands the leadership of the global forum to the US. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
South Africa president was ‘bemused' by Trump encounter
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was 'bemused' by his encounter with President Trump at the White House earlier this month, laughing off the confrontational moment some have characterized as an ambush. During Ramaphosa's visit in the Oval Office, Trump at one point called for the lights to be dimmed so he could play a video that he used to back up claims of genocide against white South Africans. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark. They darkened the room. And for a moment I wondered, what is this? It's happening to me again?' Ramaphosa told the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town, according to SABC video footage, in apparent reference to dimmed lights at the venue. The remark drew laughter from the audience. 'Because at that moment, we were seated very nicely, and I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting … with this man,' he continued, without directly referencing Trump. 'And I suddenly hear him say, 'No, make — dim the lights.'' He added, jokingly, 'And I must say, a number of people have said, 'This was an ambush. This was an ambush.' And I was bemused. I was [saying], 'What's happening?'' Ramaphosa's meeting with the president was seen as an attempt to salvage the fraught relationship between South Africa and the U.S. as the Trump administration accuses the Black-led South African government of being racist against its white citizens. During an otherwise cordial encounter, Trump confronted the Cape Town leader with baseless claims about mass murders of white South African farmers. Ramaphosa, once a close colleague of former leader Nelson Mandela, pushed back on the U.S. president's assertions, acknowledging there is 'criminality' in the country but noting a majority of victims of crime in South Africa are Black. The tense Ramaphosa-Trump moment came a couple months after an Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made global headlines. Amid Russia's ongoing war against Kyiv, Zelensky had been expected to sign off on a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's critical mineral supply — but Trump called off talks after the meeting devolved, arguing Zelensky was 'not ready for Peace.' The deal was ultimately signed at a later date, however. The White House froze aid to South Africa earlier this year and later offered an expedited pathway to citizenship to the white Afrikaners, running contrary to the administration's broader crackdown on immigration. South Africa is slated to host the Group of 20 (G20) gathering of the world's largest economies later this year, and the Oval Office clash has raised questions about whether Trump could boycott the event. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
South Africa president was ‘bemused' by Trump encounter
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was 'bemused' by his encounter with President Trump at the White House earlier this month, laughing off the confrontational moment that some have characterized as an ambush. During Ramaphosa's visit in the Oval Office, Trump at one point called for the lights to be dimmed so he could play a video that he used to back up claims of genocide against white South Africans. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark. They darkened the room. And for a moment I wondered, what is this? It's happening to me again?' Ramaphosa told the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town, according to SABC video footage, in apparent reference to dimmed lights at the venue. The remark drew laughter from the audience. 'Because at that moment, we were seated very nicely, and I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting … with this man,' he continued, without directly referencing Trump. 'And I suddenly hear him say, 'No, make- dim the lights.'' He added, jokingly, 'And I must say, a number of people have said 'this was an ambush, this was an ambush.' And I was bemused. I was [saying], 'What's happening?'' Ramaphosa's meeting with the president was seen as an attempt to salvage the fraught relationship between South Africa and the U.S. as the Trump administration accuses the Black-led South African government of being racist against its white citizens. Dring the otherwise cordial encounter, Trump confronted the Cape Town leader with baseless claims about mass murders of white farmers. Ramaphosa, once a close colleague of former leader Nelson Mandela, pushed back on the U.S. president's assertions, acknowledging that there is 'criminality' in the country, but noting that a majority of victims of crime in South Africa were Black. The tense Ramaphosa-Trump moment comes a couple months after an Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made global headlines. Amid Russia's ongoing war against Kyiv, Zelensky had been expected to sign off on a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's critical mineral supply — but Trump called off talks after the meeting devolved, arguing Zelensky was 'not ready for Peace.' Though, the deal was ultimately signed at a later date. The White House froze aid to South Africa earlier this year and later offered an expedited pathway to citizenship to the white Afrikaners, despite the administration's broader crackdown on immigration. South Africa is slated to host the Group of 20 (G20) gathering of the world's largest economies later this year, but the clash has raised questions about whether Trump could boycott the event.
Dubai Eye
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Dubai Eye
Trump confronts South Africa's Ramaphosa with false claims of genocide
It was reminiscent of his February ambush of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ramaphosa had hoped to use Wednesday's meeting to reset his country's relationship with the US, after Trump cancelled much-needed aid to South Africa, expelled the country's ambassador and criticised its genocide court case against Israel. The South African president arrived prepared for an aggressive reception with a plan to discuss trade. The US is South Africa's second-biggest trading partner, and the country is facing a 30 per cent tariff under Trump's currently suspended raft of import taxes. But in a carefully choreographed Oval Office onslaught, Trump pounced, moving quickly to a list of concerns, which he punctuated by playing a video and leafing through a stack of printed news articles that he said proved his allegations. "We have many people that feel they're being persecuted, and they're coming to the United States," Trump said. "So we take from many... locations, if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on," he added, referring specifically to some farmers. Ramaphosa, sitting in a chair next to Trump and remaining poised, pushed back against his claims. "If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here," Ramaphosa said, referring to golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen and billionaire Johann Rupert, who were present in the room. However, that did not satisfy Trump. "We have thousands of stories talking about it, and we have documentaries, we have news stories," Trump said. "It has to be responded to." The extraordinary exchange, three months after Trump and Vice President JD Vance upbraided Zelenskyy inside the same Oval Office, could prompt foreign leaders to think twice about accepting Trump's invitations and risk public embarrassment. Unlike Zelenskyy, who sparred with Trump and ended up leaving early, the South African leader kept his calm, praising Trump's decor and saying he looked forward to handing over the presidency of the Group of 20 next year. Following the meeting, Ramaphosa sought to focus on trade, telling reporters the two countries had agreed to discuss critical minerals in South Africa. His trade minister said the government had submitted a trade and investment proposal that included buying liquefied natural gas from the US.
1News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- 1News
South Africa president says White House meeting with Trump wasn't so dramatic
The sentiment in South Africa ahead of its leader's meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House today was one of fear and trepidation. "Into the mouth of Trump hell" was how one newspaper headline described his mission. South Africans worried that President Cyril Ramaphosa was exposing himself to the kind of public thrashing that Trump and US Vice President JD Vance meted out on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the world's media three months ago. But after being confronted by Trump with baseless allegations that there are widespread killings of white farmers in South Africa — and made to watch a video of a fringe South African politician repeating a chant referring to the killing of white farmers — Ramaphosa seemed to think the Oval Office meeting wasn't that dramatic. 'You wanted to see drama and something big happening,' Ramaphosa said to reporters afterwards. 'I'm sorry that we disappointed you somewhat." Ramaphosa is renowned in his home country as a calm, measured politician who is hardly ever emotional. He made his name, though, in some of the toughest, highest-profile political negotiations his country has ever faced. Ramaphosa was the African National Congress party's chief negotiator during the talks in the early 1990s that ended the apartheid system of white minority rule that had forced racial segregation on South Africans for nearly a half-century. After apartheid, he was seen by some as the logical successor to Nelson Mandela as South African president. He missed out but returned to politics more than a decade later and became president in 2018. Ramaphosa sought out the meeting with Trump in an attempt to correct what he said were mischaracterizations of South Africa by the US — and to negotiate critical new trade deals. Many South Africans didn't want him to go to the headquarters of an administration that has made serious and false allegations against their country, including that Ramaphosa's government is allowing white farmers to be routinely killed in what Trump has repeatedly called a 'genocide". 'I honestly don't understand why Ramaphosa is actually in the United States when Trump has made it very clear how he feels about South Africa," said college student Dumisani Mnisi in Johannesburg. Ramaphosa's spokesperson said that the video, the newspaper clippings of farm murders that Trump produced, and the overall confrontation in the Oval Office made for 'an orchestrated show for the cameras', and the real business was the closed-door meeting afterwards. Ramaphosa said he was pleased after that meeting and listed what he counted as successes to take home from Washington. He said he thought he had persuaded Trump to attend the Group of 20 summit in South Africa in November after the Trump administration said it would boycott. South Africa will hand over the rotating presidency of the G20 to the US next year. Ramaphosa said he believed he had started to change Trump's mind over South Africa, although he conceded that would probably be 'a process'. Ramaphosa said talks had started on several areas of trade and cooperation. And he also said the South African delegation had received souvenirs to mark their visit to the White House, and he and Trump had swapped gifts. They gave each other a book. 'So that was good,' Ramaphosa said.
