Latest news with #PresidentRamaphosa
Bloomberg
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Ramaphosa Blasts Back at Trump Over Threatened Tariffs on BRICS
By , Simone Iglesias, and Mirette Magdy Save South African President Cyril Ramaphosa stepped in to an escalating spat with Donald Trump over the US president's threats targeting the BRICS group, saying that 'it cannot be that might should now be right.' 'It is really disappointing that when there is such a very positive collective manifestation such as BRICS, there should be others who see it in negative light and want to punish those who participate,' Ramaphosa told reporters in Rio de Janeiro as he left the two-day summit of BRICS nations. 'It cannot be and should not be.'
Zawya
29-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa to participate at the 4th International Conference on the Financing for Development in Spain
At the invitation of the President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón of the Government of Spain and United Nations Secretary - General António Guterres, the South African government, led by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon. Ronald Lamola will lead South Africa's participating delegation to the 4th International Conference on the Financing for Development Summit that is taking place in Seville on 30 June 2025 - 3 July 2025. This conference aims to address new and emerging issues in financing for development, including the need to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reform the international financial architecture. President Ramaphosa has delegated Minister Lamola as the Head of Delegation for the Summit following recent political developments that require close monitoring and management in the country. South Africa's participation at the Summit aligns with its G20 Presidency objectives of solidarity, equality and sustainability in complementing and supporting the Summits' goals of reshaping the global financial system in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. On the margins of the 4th Financing for Development Summit, South Africa will convene a side event under the theme: 'Forging a common agenda to achieve debt sustainability in developing economies'. South Africa seeks to advance through cooperation and collaboration, sustainable solutions to tackle high structural deficits and liquidity challenges and to extend debt relief to developing economies which disproportionately affects countries in Africa. This event will bring together leading voices from various debt-related initiatives to identify synergies and areas of convergence. It will seek consensus and highlight solutions that enjoy broad support. South Africa's delegation to the 4th International Conference on the Financing for Development Summit comprises the Minister in the Presidency for Planning , Monitoring and Evaluation Hon. Maropene Ramokgopa, Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo and senior government officials. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
South Africa Collides Head-On With Trump's Claims of White Victimhood
For President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the meeting in the Oval Office was meant to be a chance to hit the reset button. He did everything to get the mood right. He got President Trump to giggle with a joke about golf. He offered him a book. And he kept the compliments flowing, thanking Mr. Trump for providing South Africa with respirators during the Covid-19 pandemic. 'It really touched my heart,' Mr. Ramaphosa said. In the build up to Mr. Ramaphosa's meeting in the White House on Wednesday, South African officials stressed that they would not focus on Mr. Trump's recent claims of white genocide, which are widely acknowledged as false. Instead they would talk about tariffs, South Africa's valuable minerals and strengthening business ties between the two countries. But Mr. Ramaphosa walked away from the meeting bruised, with little to show for it beyond more uncertainty. His effort to avoid the discussion of the so-called genocide and the recent arrival of 59 white South Africans labeled refugees by the Trump administration appeared to backfire spectacularly. Now, South Africa is staring down steep tariffs, no promise of a new trade agreement and a missed opportunity to set the record straight on Mr. Trump's continued accusations of racism against white people, who on the whole are much better off economically than the Black majority in South Africa. 'Today's performance, if it does not lead to meaningful reconciliation, will only create more downward pressure on poor South Africans who struggle,' said Patrick Gaspard, the former United States ambassador to South Africa. South Africa needs the United States more than ever, with unemployment and inequality soaring, economic growth tepid and violence against South Africans of all races rampant. Mr. Ramaphosa sought to get reassurances from the White House that his country could continue to rely on the United States, its second largest trading partner, as a market for South African goods and as a source of investment in the nation's economy. But his plans fell apart when Mr. Trump ordered his people to turn down the lights in the Oval Office. An aide standing next to a big-screen television popped open a laptop and pressed play. A montage of clips featuring Julius Malema, a firebrand leftist South African politician, began to play. In the clips, Mr. Malema leads apartheid-era chants calling for South Africans to kill Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that created and led the brutal system of apartheid. For the next 40 minutes, as the world watched live, Mr. Ramaphosa could do little to stop Mr. Trump from framing the meeting on his terms. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, deposited a stack of news clips on a table next to Mr. Trump with headlines about white South Africans. Mr. Trump even got Retief Goosen — one of the championship golfers Mr. Ramaphosa had brought to the meeting to help dispel myths about white persecution — to reveal that his family used an electric fence for protection and that his mother had been the victim of an attack. At one point, Mr. Trump equated the circumstances — falsely — that white South Africans currently face to the atrocities of apartheid, which subjected Black South Africans to subhuman conditions and violence. But, Mr. Trump said, 'what's happening now is never reported.' Mr. Ramaphosa's efforts to address the footage were drowned out by Mr. Trump, who went so far as to wave off the South African leader when he attempted to talk over the video. Still, Mr. Trump declined to say he knew for certain that there was genocide against white people happening in South Africa, and Mr. Ramaphosa counted that as a win. 'I do believe that there's doubt and disbelief in his head about all of this,' Mr. Ramaphosa said. The two sides held a working lunch following the Oval Office gathering, and Mr. Ramaphosa briefed journalists in a hotel ballroom afterward. He was greeted by halting applause from members of his delegation. The president, known as a calm tactician, was smiling. 'All in all, I do believe that our visit here has been a great success,' Mr. Ramaphosa said, arguing that once the cameras were off, the conversation was no longer contentious. South Africa presented a framework for a trade deal, the president said, and the two sides agreed to hold further discussions to iron out the specifics of an agreement. He said that Mr. Trump indicated that he would attend the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg in November, despite suggestions by his administration that the United States might skip it. Even as Mr. Ramaphosa claimed success, by his own measure, there remains a lot of work to do to repair his country's relations with the United States and bring the economy back to heel. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said that if South Africa, the continent's largest economy, continued to feel isolated by the United States, it could damage American interests as well. 'I see this as Donald Trump retreating from the Global South and ceding leadership to China and other adversaries,' he said. Mr. Ramaphosa did manage to avoid one contentious discussion during the meeting: Mr. Trump's delegation did not even bring up the genocide case that South Africa filed against Israel for the war in Gaza, a subject that has fueled many of Mr. Trump's attacks against South Africa.
CNN
21-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Trump ambushes South African president in Oval Office with video
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa sat in awkward silence as he listened to a video US President Donald Trump played in the Oval Office. CNN's Larry Madowo reports that Trump was pushing debunked claims and multiple reports have found no evidence of a "White genocide" in South Africa.
