President Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House Oval Office on Wednesday.
Evan VUCCI / AP
hide
tilting legend
Evan VUCCI / AP
Johannesburg – “Overall, it was horrible, but it could have been worse”, was how a South African newspaper summed up the president of the oval of President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with President Trump.
Many South Africans – including those of the Government Delegation – feared a rehearsal of the February exchange of February between Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But despite what another newspaper called “a serious provocation” by Trump – which understood the dramatic moment that he asked that the lights be sieved and played a long editing of video sequences claiming to prove the “white genocide” – Ramaphosa kept his composure.
The South African chief, who was a protégé from Nelson Mandela, has an experience of intense negotiations. He was one of the main mediators of talks that ended the apartheid in South Africa in 1994.
Most of the South African media as well as many social media users congratulate him to remain calm and polished throughout what is widely called the ambush by Trump, although some want to have retaliated stronger.
“Who among us has not also secretly sucked in to see Ramaphosa retaliated a little more?” asked the writer Rebecca Davis in the Daily Maverick Journal.
Ramaphosa himself tried to make a positive turn on things during a press briefing later Wednesday. He said in camera at the lunch that followed the drama of the oval office, things had gone well. Trump could still attend the G20 in Johannesburg later this year, he said, adding that they also had good commercial talks.
“I know that many South Africans were filled with concern and fear that we would have a” Z “moment,” said the president, seemingly referring to Zelenskyy “and everything that did not succeed.”
He added that he was sorry to disappoint the South African press body that had traveled to Washington and wanted to see a drama, which prompted a journalist to say: “Mr. President … I don’t know what is a drama in your book, but it was very dramatic.” Another journalist told Ramaphosa that he deserved a steep drink.
Demystified disinformation
Despite the attempts of the South African delegation to explain the facts to the American leader, Trump has again and again repeated a right-wing conspiracy theory that there is a systematic persecution and a “genocide” of white South Africans. And used disinformation to support its allegations.
He distorted a video showing a demonstration, where people have placed white crosses in a field to commemorate a farmer and his wife who were murdered in a home flight in 2020, as a “burial place”. South African News24 information site said there is no body on the site and that the number of crosses does not concern the number of murders.
Trump has also played clips of two controversial politicians from the South African opposition – who does not speak in any case for the government – sing songs from the fight against apartheid, including a entitled “Kill the Boer” – which means Afrikaaner or farmer.
The only politician, the brandard Julius Malema, directed an agitated opposition party which won just over 9% of the votes in the last elections. Trump asked why he was not arrested. In fact, Malema was brought to justice for hate speech for sanging the song during rallies, and the Constitutional Court judged that the song of the song was protected by freedom of expression.
Malema seems to have delighted with her oval 15 minutes, Disperiously display on X: “A group of older men gathered in Washington to chat with me.”
Finally, Trump gave Ramaphosa a bunch of printed articles which, according to him, showed “death, death, horrible death”. Media in South Africa, as well as Press AFP, AFP, studied the articles and found that some came from partisan blogs and unspoken online sources.
An article that Trump resisted, saying that it was “burnt white farmers” in fact concerned the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The South African businessman Johann Rupert, on the left, and the South African golfers withdraws Tosen, Center, and Ernie Els, on the right, consider that President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the oval office of the White House.
Evan VUCCI / AP
hide
tilting legend
Evan VUCCI / AP
About these golfers
Be that as it is in Reunion, it is undeniable that it dominates a large part of social media. The groups of white South African rights – and the commentators of Maga – applauded Trump for having repeated their points of discussion on racial relations, while certain far -left groups denounced Ramaphosa for having brought the white South African businessmen and the golfers of white stars in Reunion.
Ramaphosa and Trump are both passionate golfers, and the presence of the former world number 1 Ernie Els and the Double Champion of the US Open retief Goosen was a tactic that the South African team hoped to broadcast all tensions during the meeting. Els is a personal friend of Trump and would have helped Ramaphosa to obtain the meeting of the White House.
The richest man in South Africa, the business magnate Johann Rupert, also white and Afrikaans and a friend of the two presidents.
Rupert won praise from the South African media for having told Trump “it is not only white farmers” who are victims of violent crimes “It is at all levels” and declaring that non-barncs were in fact the greatest victims. Ramaphosa’s white Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, also challenged Trump, telling him that most white farmers wanted to stay in South Africa.
But the golfers angry it a lot.
ELS seemed to support Trump’s story on white persecution, referring to the apartheid era, but adding: “I don’t think two wrongs are right.” He also thanked the United States for supporting South Africa during his war with Angola – but as X users quickly stressed, this support had been for the old apartheid regime. “Ernie Els is worse than an apartheid apologist,” wrote a user X.
A Daily Maverick journalist wrote that men were talented golfers, but “What do they have to do with international relations?” The South African media asked Ramaphosa after the meeting if the golfers should not have been better prepared. He defended them as a patriots, but admitted that they could have been.
What is particularly exasperating for many is the ridiculous treatment of Trump of the head of state of a constitutional democracy. Several articles of local newspapers have stressed that he does not deal with authoritarian managers of questionable human rights files as he dealt with the South African president.
