South Africans expressed alarm on Thursday at how US President Donald Trump's false claims of white genocide dominated his call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa the previous day. Many South Africans questioned whether his trip to Washington was worth it, Reuters points out, BTA writes.
Ramaposa included popular white South African golfers in his delegation and hoped that talks with Trump at the White House on Wednesday would restore relations with the United States, which have deteriorated since the American leader took office in January.
But Trump spent most of the conversation confronting his South African guest with false allegations that white farmers from the Afrikaner minority in South Africa are being systematically killed and their land seized. To a neutral observer and a potential tourist or investor, South Africa's reputation was completely ruined in prime time television. The whole idea of the event, in which Trump favored white golfers over the black president and cabinet ministers, evoked unpleasant memories of apartheid, an editorial in the. “Financial Times“.
According to some, however, Ramaphosa's coolness raises the question of what he has achieved by subjecting himself to Trump's attack, Reuters notes.
The South African president arrived prepared for an aggressive welcome given Trump's actions in recent months, who has canceled aid to South Africa, offered asylum to the white Afrikaner minority, expelled the country's ambassador and criticized its genocide lawsuit against Israel.
Throughout the meeting, however, Trump wanted to discuss only the treatment of white South Africans, playing videos and flipping through articles that he said proved his claims.
South African Foreign Ministry spokesman Crispin Phiri defended Ramaphosa's conduct at the meeting, saying it was important for the two leaders to maintain contact. "It is not in the president's (Ramaposa's) character to be belligerent. (He) takes a calm, business-like approach to issues. I think that is what we expect from our presidents," the spokesman told Reuters.
Three decades after the end of apartheid in South Africa, some far-right groups lament the loss of white power that democracy brought, and point to the country's ongoing economic crisis and corruption.
Public disillusionment with the situation cost Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) party a majority in last year's elections.
White South Africans make up less than 8 percent of the population and are still the wealthiest group, controlling three-quarters of private land. Although South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world - around 20,000 per year - most victims are black.
Data collected from white farmers themselves does not support claims of genocide. The Afrikaner Farmers' Union has counted 1,363 white farmers killed since 1990. since, or an average of 40 per year - far less than 1 percent of the total number of murders.
Yet for more than a decade, the idea that whites are being persecuted has been circulating in the global far-right chatrooms - views that appear to have influenced Trump, a number of Republican politicians and his ally, the South African-born Elon Musk.
Overall, Ramaphosa and his carefully selected delegation of prominent Afrikaners, including a cabinet member, a multi-billionaire and two famous golfers, performed as well as expected. The wily Ramaphosa did not fall into Trump's trap, the “Financial Times“ points out.
The South African delegation judged, rightly or wrongly, that it left Washington in a slightly better position than it had arrived. Talks have begun aimed at easing the 30 percent tariffs announced on Liberation Day and encouraging US investment in rare earth minerals and telecommunications, including from Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The standoff in the White House raises broader questions. One is how countries should navigate a world in which the United States has adopted its own form of confrontational diplomacy. It was a small victory for Ramaphosa that Trump did not raise the issue of South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC), nor did he repeat his criticism of its close ties with Russia, China and Iran.
Ramaphosa’s visits to Washington are part of a complex game that aims to prove that South Africa values its relations with the United States and the West more broadly, the Financial Times notes.
It is at home that Ramaphosa must act most decisively. He has rightly condemned the racial hatred of radical opposition leader Julius Malema and his advocacy of mass expropriation. A similar policy is being implemented in Zimbabwe. Ramaphosa's policy line must go beyond the benefit of a group of close associates at the expense of broader economic development. Radical change is needed - not because Trump put on a grotesque show, but because South Africans demand it, the “Financial Times“ points out.