Latest news with #SustainableInfrastructureDevelopmentSymposium
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'I Was Bemused': Cyril Ramaphosa Recounts Explosive Oval Office Meeting With Trump
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday recalled his recent, chaotic sit-down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, making light of an extraordinary moment in which the U.S. president promoted baseless conspiracy theories about his country's treatment of white farmers. As soon as Ramaphosa was about to begin speaking at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town, the lights were dimmed, echoing a now-viral part of his meeting with Trump. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark,' he said. 'They darkened the room. And for a moment I wondered, 'What is this! It's happening to me again!'' While their White House meeting last week started on a good note with Trump saying it was a 'great honor' to host Ramaphosa in Washington, shortly after, the U.S. president baselessly accused his guest of not doing enough to stop 'white genocide' in his country. About 20 minutes into the sit-down, Trump ordered his staff to turn the lights down in the room to play a video allegedly showing the families of white farmers displaying crosses to honor their dead loved ones. However, the video, which was filmed in September 2020, did not depict gravesites but was taken from a protest following the deaths of two farmers on their property, according to Reuters. Ramaphosa recalled the moment Tuesday, trying to make light of the situation he was confronted with. '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,'' he said. 'A number of people have said, 'This was an ambush, this was an ambush.' I was bemused. I was saying, 'What's happening?'' Besides the video, Trump also held up printouts of articles he claimed depicted the mass killings of white South Africans. 'These are all white farmers that are being buried,' Trump said pointing to a picture that wasn't even taken in South Africa, according to the Agence-France Presse. Earlier this month, Trump welcomed 59 white Afrikaners to the U.S. as refugees, claiming they were being persecuted in their home country. Ramaphosa has disputed the allegations. Trump cited the debunked claims as the main reason for making major cuts to U.S. aid for South Africa in March. Why Trump Is So Obsessed With White South Africans Trump Claimed This Photo Proved 'Genocide' Of White South Africans, But There's 1 Big Problem Trump Hammers South African President Over Alleged Attacks On White Farmers
TimesLIVE
7 days ago
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
'I was bemused': Ramaphosa reacts to Trump's 'dim the lights' at White House
President Cyril Ramaphosa says he was surprised when US President Donald Trump pulled the 'dim the lights' move during their meeting in the White House last week. During the meeting, Trump asked for the lights to be turned down and presented videos to prove his narrative of white genocide in South Africa. Addressing the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town on Tuesday, Ramaphosa jokingly said when the lights went out, it reminded him of a similar incident at the White House. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark and for a moment I wondered, what is this? It's happening to me again,' he laughed. 'Because at that moment we were seated nicely and I was beginning to get into the groove of interacting with this man. Then I suddenly heard him say, 'dim the lights'. I must say a number of people have said this was an ambush and I was bemused. I was like, what's happening?'
The Citizen
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Citizen
Piers Morgan slams Ramaphosa for defending 'Kill The Boer chant'
Ramaphosa reacted to Trump's call for EFF leader Julius Malema's arrest. Controversial UK talk show host Piers Morgan has slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa's comments that 'Kill The Boer' is a 'liberation chant' and should not be taken literally. Ramaphosa made the remarks on the sidelines of the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium (SIDSSA) held at the Century City Convention Centre on Tuesday. The president delivered the keynote address at the symposium. Ramaphosa ambush His comments come a week after US President Donald Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with graphic footage falsely claiming 'white genocide' against South African farmers. During the bilateral talks, which played out before the media, the US president showed videos of EFF leader Julius Malema chanting 'Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer' to support his false belief in genocide against whites in the country, asking why the red berets leader has not been arrested. ALSO READ: WATCH: 'Dim the lights' — Ramaphosa pokes fun at Trump meeting 'Sovereign issue' Speaking to reporters, Ramaphosa reacted to Trump's call for Malema's arrest. 'When it comes to the issues of arresting anyone for any slogan, that is a sovereign issue. It's not a matter of where we need to be instructed by anyone to go and arrest this one. We are a very proud sovereign country that has its own laws and processes. 'We take it to account where the Constitutional Court also decided when it said that the slogan 'Kill the Boer', 'Kill the Farmer' is a liberation chant and slogan and it's not meant to be a message that illicitly calls upon anyone to go and be killed,' Ramaphosa said. Morgan reacts However, Ramaphosa's comment did not sit well with Morgan. 'Oh come off it, Mr President – it's literally a threat, and incitement, to kill,' Morgan said in a post on X. ALSO READ: Trump changes tune and 'agrees' to participate in G20 Summit, Ramaphosa says Ramaphosa said South Africa is a country where 'freedom of expression is the bedrock of our constitution'. 'Kill the Boer' In March, lobby group AfriForum suffered a final blow in its attempt to have the controversial chant 'Kill the Boer, kill the farmer' declared as hate speech. The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) delivered a brief ruling dismissing AfriForum's application for leave to appeal. The ConCourt concluded that the application 'bears no reasonable prospects of success'. On Sunday, Malema said he doesn't fear for his life after Trump called for his arrest. Addressing EFF supporters during a rally in Ward 16, Koppies, in the Free State on Africa Day, Malema said he would never be intimidated by Trump. 'Well, I'm not fearful. As a revolutionary, part of being killed is one of those honours you must wear with pride, but I'm not going to be reckless. When he says to Ramaphosa, why is this man not in jail, why are you not arresting this man? He simply means, why are you not killing this man, because this man wants to kill white people? That's what he believes.' Malema said Ramaphosa could not present the facts to Trump. 'I will never stop singing a song that Winnie Mandela sang. That would be a betrayal to the struggle of our people'. Malema criticised Ramaphosa and his delegation for their failure to defend the constitution of South Africa, particularly the right to freedom of speech in the context of the 'Kill the Boer'. ALSO READ: WATCH: Donald Trump ambushes Cyril Ramaphosa in Oval Office
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
South Africa's President Reveals True Feelings About Bizarre Trump Meeting
South Africa's president couldn't stop giggling about his encounter with Donald Trump. Cyril Ramaphosa said he got flashbacks to his meeting with the U.S. president when he took the stage at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town on Tuesday. '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,'' he said with a chuckle as the crowd burst into laughter. Trump's otherwise cordial meeting with Ramaphosa at the White House last week took a Zelensky-style turn when he played a video of what he claimed to be the burial grounds of white farmers allegedly killed by Black South Africans trying to take their land. 'At that moment, we were seated very nicely and I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting with this man, and I suddenly hear him say, 'No, dim the lights,'' Ramaphosa told the Cape Town audience, who again broke out into laughter. Trump used their meeting to confront Ramaphosa with unsubstantiated claims that South Africa's Black-led government is anti-white and perpetrating a 'white genocide' against local farmers while Elon Musk, the South African billionaire, stood on the sidelines of the Oval Office. Fact-checkers have found, however, that the footage Trump played didn't actually show the 'burial sites' of 'over a thousand' white farmers. Instead, the white crosses on display were temporarily erected as a memorial to a white farming couple shot dead on their premises in 2020. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that 'the video shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people who were racially persecuted by their government,' but glossed over questions that pointed out Trump claimed they were 'burial sites.' The interaction with Ramaphosa was reminiscent of a similarly tense meeting Trump had with Volodymyr Zelensky in February, when he dressed down the Ukrainian president in front of the cameras. 'I must say, a number of people have said, 'This was an ambush. This was an ambush,'' Ramaphosa said Tuesday. 'And I was bemused. I was saying, 'What's happening?'' The Sunday Times, a prominent South African newspaper, blasted Trump for 'blindsiding' Ramaphosa with claims of a 'white genocide.' During the Oval Office meeting, Trump also held up a printout of an American Thinker article as proof that white farmers are 'being buried' in South Africa. But the image that accompanied the article—showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags—was, in fact, taken in Congo. American Thinker managing editor Andrea Widburg, who authored the post Trump cited, told Reuters that the president 'misidentified the image.' The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- 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.
