United States president, Donald Trump, has confronted South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, with documentary featuring South African opposition politician Julius Malema singing a song about which includes the line “shoot the Boer”, which refers to white farmers in the country and documents with reports of various dead white farmers.
This was in reponse to Ramaphosa asking what it will take for Trump to believe there was no white genocide in South Africa at a bilateral meeting between the two leaders in the White House Oval office, yesterday.
South African President, who was there with a delagation, clarified his position on Trump’s accusations, saying that the country has a democracy that allows people to express themselves.
“There is criminality in our country, and the people who get killed are not only white people, but includes black people too,” he said. He explained that Malema’s speech and actions are not government policy.
South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen discussing Trump’s conerns about the situation of white farmers, said the majority of farmers want to stay in South Africa rather than leave, as the group who have come the United States have.
Steenhuisen, who is white and is also the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance party, said the country has priorities on protecting white farmers, including stopping the crime of livestock theft.
Malema has responded to being the centre of attraction at the South Africa– US meeting at the Oval Office yesterday, saying on X: “A group of older men meet in Washington to gossip about me. No significant amount of intelligence evidence has been produced about white genocide. We will not agree to compromise our political principles on land expropriation without compensation for political expediency.”
President Trump offered the South African golfers who came as part of the South African delegation a chance to speak. One of them, Ernie Els said he’s a proud South African, but he wants to see things get better in his home country. He talked about growing up during apartheid, telling the Oval Office that “two wrongs don’t make a right”.
South African billionaire businessman, Johann Rupert informed Trump that the country has too many deaths that are across racial groups.
“It’s not only white farmers,” he said.
Ramaphosa on economy stated that criminality thrives when people are unemployed, reinforcing his reason for visiting.
“Our main, main, real reason for being here is to foster trade and investment, so that we are able to grow our economy, with your support,” he said.
When asked what he expects to come out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza, propagated by South Africa, Trump said te ruling would be given by the court.
“I don’t expect anything. There’s a lot of anger there, tremendous anger. We’ll have a ruling, who knows what the ruling is going to mean,” he said.
Both presidents also expressed desire to see an end of the Ukraine-Russia war, while Trump said he wants to see peace across Africa, adding that the United States has settled conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which involved Rwandan-backed rebels.
