Lesedi Sibiya- Diplomatic Inside
The meeting between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump took place at the Oval office in Washington DC yesterday at 18:30 CAT. The purpose of this meeting between the two presidents was to discuss bilateral relations as President Ramaphosa described his meeting with the US President as “Robust and fruitful”. Despite this optimistic outlook, the meeting did have a number of negative talking points as President Trump continued to press about the ‘acts of genocide’ that are allegedly being perpetrated against the Afrikaner settlers that fled to America.
President Ramaphosa seemed complacent in his conversation with President Trump as the US President insisted that there is in fact a genocide taking place in South Africa and even going as far as to play a documentary clip that speaks on these claims of genocide, which caught President Ramaphosa and his team of delegates off guard. The documentary consisted of a series of clips which show Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) President Julius Malema shouting about expropriating land without compensation. He even used audio from Malema’s time in the African National Congress Youth League when he spoke about “Killing the Boers” a statement that Malema has since retracted. President Trump was also holding a booklet of articles which have been reporting the ‘genocide’ and claims that the South African government have been ignoring these articles and says that the government have allowed the farmer’s land to be forcefully taken away and even going as far as letting them be murdered as a result of owning their land. President Ramaphosa did his best to deflect from this narrative by explaining that the remarks made by Julius Malema are not part of government policy. Ramaphosa further explained how political parties have no influence on the national government and even bringing up the critical tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as a means to make President Trump understand how severe a genocide can be. However despite this deflective attempt Donald Trump still stood on his stance even saying “The situation in Congo has nothing to do with me, I don’t know anything about it”.
Despite the tension the conversation of ‘white genocide’ brought up between the two leaders, President Cyril Ramaphosa has insisted that President Trump come to the G20 summit which will be held in November this year, where this issue can be addressed and also for President Trump to have a look for himself what the situation in South Africa is in terms of this genocidal claims.
President Ramaphosa has expressed that the discussions will continue as key talking points will include, Investment flows, the tariff structures, allowing South Africa access to the U.S market through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
