US President Donald Trump ambushed a video of South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa and a bunch of reports claiming mass murders of white South African farmers at an extraordinary White House press conference that left diplomatic relations in the ditch.
After a relatively 15 minutes of restraint at the meeting, the leaders traded pleasure and ramaphosas adjacent to legendary South African golfer Ernie Elles, rechief Goosen and billionaire businessman Johann Rupert. Julius Malema, radical opposition leader in Africa.
In a rambling commentary, Trump is trying to interpret what is shown on screen, including footage of an obvious monument for the murdered South African farmer who said he showed a “burial site” of a white farmer.
“Have they ever told you where the president is?” a confused Ramaphosa asked Trump.
“I want to know where this is, but I've never seen it, I need to know.”
The meeting reminds me of Zelensky's confusion
In a scene reminiscent of an ugly diplomatic attack on Ukrainian President Voldy Mir Zelensky during a tragic oval office meeting with Trump in February, the unpleasant ramaphosa shifted in his seat, as Trump said “people who were recently killed” said.
“These are articles from the past few days…
He went on to repeatedly amplify stupid and unfounded claims about the situation in South Africa. Many of them have been aired in recent months by Trump and his allies, including South Africa-born billionaire businessman Iron Musk. Trump claimed that his nameless friend had warned him about South Africa.
“I have other friends from South Africa. People who have left, especially you say they can't go there because they said they'll take your land and kill you.”
Ramaphosa rebutted that the video presented does not reflect government policies, saying Malema's speech reflects the views of minorities in multi-party democracy.
“Our government policy is totally opposed to what he (Malema) was saying even in Congress. They are minority parties that are permitted to exist in our constitutional view. There is a crime in our country. Unfortunately, white people are not the only people killed through criminal conduct.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, who was invited by Ramaphosa to respond to Trump's claims, was the leader of the Democratic Union and acknowledged that South Africa has rural crime issues, but said the aim of South Africa's National Unification Government was to maintain extremists dedicated to violence and land expropriation.
Ramaphosa's diplomacy is dead end
Diplomatic Ramaphosa has sought to bring the conference back to a safer position by inviting the US security sector to bring its technical capabilities to South Africa's crime countermeasures.
Ramaphosa also tried to explain South Africa's land redistribution policy to Trump after the US president argued that “you're taking people's land from them, and in many cases those people are executed and they just happen to be farmers.”
But Trump's wild accusations made Ramaphosa want to reset ties with the US in tatters after months of coordinated diplomatic attacks. This included the expulsion of South Africa's ambassador Ebrahim Lasol and the refusal of Secretary of State Marco Rubio to attend G20 foreign affairs.
Only once in the meeting, Ramaphosa's stimulation threatened to penetrate his diplomatic armor.
“Sorry,” he pointed out to Trump that it was a reference to the Qatar gift of the Boeing 747 jet that could be used as the next Air Force.
