Donald Trump’s haranguing of Cyril Ramaphosa at the Oval Office wasn’t wholly unexpected — the visiting leader had plenty of forewarning of the US president’s animosity toward his administration.
It was still shocking to watch as the South African president was subjected to a dressing-down reminiscent of the one that saw Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy barely maintain his composure.
Ramaphosa is one of Africa’s most seasoned negotiators, but what unfolded in Washington yesterday felt less like diplomacy and more like a show trial.
Trump played a series of out-of-context video clips to corner Ramaphosa and repeat false allegations that White Afrikaners were being systematically deprived of their land and “executed.”
Then followed a surreal moment when White South African golfers who’d accompanied their president appeared to side with his host.
Ramaphosa pushed back measuredly. “Calm Cyril Survives Trump’s Ambush,” ran the headline in today’s Sowetan newspaper.
Ramaphosa is far from uncontested at home, where crime is endemic and inequalities persist.
Yet America First Trump clearly sees it as his business to get involved, with his administration having condemned South Africa’s pro-Palestinian stance, withdrawn US aid and so far spurned its Group of 20 presidency.
Pretoria-born ally Elon Musk has amplified the conspiracy theory of a genocide against White South Africans on his X platform.
Now Musk, who wants South Africa to permission his Starlink internet service, may be a transactional bridge as Ramaphosa is left trying to salvage what he can.
As it stands, any hope Ramaphosa had of rescuing South Africa’s access to AGOA — the US preferential-trade agreement — appears dead. His nation faces steep tariffs, deeper interference in its domestic policy, and an awkward transfer of the G-20 to the US.
In a final gambit that’s not without irony, Ramaphosa may need to seek help from a fellow Brics nation president, one of the few foreign leaders who apparently has Trump’s ear: Vladimir Putin. — S’thembile Cele