If US President Donald Trump read in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choice of the next South African ambassador to Washington a sign that Pretoria was ready to kowtow to the imperial power’s wishes, Ramaphosa’s speech in Barcelona would have left him with no doubt that SA has not been intimidated.
A few days after Ramaphosa announced apartheid-era minister turned close friend to the president, Roelf Meyer, as Pretoria’s envoy to Washington, Trump doubled-down on his false claim that there is a “white genocide” in SA.
Speaking at an event in Arizona on Friday night, the US president told his audience that his administration had stopped all migration from “third world countries” and was accepting no refugees “except for persecuted white South Africans”.
“There is a horrible thing going on in South Africa, it is a genocide.
“It is a horrible thing and [so] we have made it possible for these people to come into our country … They kill people if they are white.
“If you are a white person — let me tell you something, I did great with the black vote, the African-American vote … South Africa, they kill white farmers …
“Terrible, we can’t let it go on and we have to talk about it,” Trump claimed.
He further claimed that mainstream US publications were avoiding covering the story, saying that the respected New York Times “covered it once” and that the reporter who wrote the story was probably fired.
Of course, he provided no evidence of any of these claims.
Trump has repeated his attack on SA on many occasions despite the fact that his own government has nothing to support the claims.
Interestingly, his vitriolic assault came just a day after his one-time associate and the world’s richest man, Pretoria-born Elon Musk, revived his own claims that one of his businesses was being prevented from operating in SA because he is white.
Musk even went as far as to support those of his social media followers who were calling for the US and other western countries to impose new sanctions against SA on the laughable basis that the country was now practising a new form of apartheid targeted at its white citizens.
The timing of these attacks by Trump and Musk suggests that they either fear that Meyer’s ambassadorship would cause the American public to doubt the “white genocide” narrative or that they think Ramaphosa is desperate to appease Trump and that hitting him harder may lead him to capitulate on key international policy issues the two countries disagree on.
Clearly the issue has never been about the fate of white Afrikaners, far from it.
The Trump administration has taken umbrage at Pretoria’s decision to haul US ally Israel before the International Court of Justice for genocide in Gaza.
Washington is also unhappy about SA’s firm position on a number of geopolitical issues, including Pretoria’s perceived growing ties to China, Iran and several other “global south” countries that the US regards as enemies.
By appointing Meyer who, even though at some stage he left the Nationalist Party and joined the ANC, is politically conservative and broadly pro-West, Ramaphosa may have been seen in the White House as someone who is so desperate to make peace with Washington that a few more pushes against him would result in him giving in.
Hence Trump’s unprovoked weekend remarks.
However, if that is indeed what drove Trump to launch his latest attack, he is mistaken, Ramaphosa is not about to fold.
Much of the political analysis and commentary here at home about the president tends to paint Ramaphosa as a pusillanimous leader who avoids taking tough decisions.
However, on the international stage he is seen as intrepid — not afraid of standing up to world powers even in moments when his appears to be the lone voice.
This weekend, during his state visit to Spain, we witnessed the same Ramaphosa.
In his address to the Global Progressive Mobilisation Plenary, Ramaphosa did not mince his words in his criticism of the current global system and its failure to rein in bullies and stop illegal wars.
“This is a time of aggression, war, conflict and destruction. The laws and norms that have long defined relations between nations are wilfully violated.
“Institutions of global governance are being undermined or maliciously repurposed.
“The United Nations has now become a toothless organisation because those who are members of the Security Council are the ones who continue to violate all the laws and the rights,” Ramaphosa said, in a not-so-subtle criticism of the US.
In the clearest indication that despite US ambassador to SA Brent Bozell in the past saying one of his priorities would be to get Pretoria to withdraw the ICJ case, SA is not about to do so, Ramaphosa spoke against the “resurgence in unlawful wars of aggression and genocide in places like Palestine”.
He associated these to “ideologies of superiority that continue to treat the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America as second-class global citizens …”
Ramaphosa then called “for action, for mobilisation, for renewal”.
“This moment of severe crisis is at the same time a moment of unique opportunity.
“It is an opportunity to galvanise the forces of progressive change to forge a new path of peace, democracy and social justice …
“This is an opportunity to confront the forces of reaction, who have gained much ground by offering people easy answers to complex problems.
“They have exploited legitimate grievances — about jobs, about security, about identity — and they have redirected people’s fears and anger toward the most vulnerable,” he said.
Ramaphosa might not have called out Trump by name, but the president is clearly calling on the rest of the world to stand up to the US president and his ilk.
How will Trump respond?
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