A meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa which the South African leader said was intended to “reset” the relationship between both governments after months of tensions went off the rails when Trump confronted his guest with inflammatory videos and news articles which he alleged to be evidence of “genocide” against white South Africans.
The Oval Office session had been largely calm and filled with compliments delivered from both Trump and Ramaphosa when the American leader was asked what it would take for Ramaphosa to convince him that no such “genocide” was taking place.
Trump directed staff to play a video, which included footage of Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, in which Malema repeatedly exhorts followers at a rally to “kill the farmer” and “kill the Boer.”
After the video was finished, Ramaphosa told Trump that Malema, while a member of his country’s parliament, doesn’t wield any authority and isn’t part of the government.
“We have a multi party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies. And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying, even in the Parliament, and they’re a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our Constitution,” he said.
Continuing, the South African leader admitted that there is “criminality” in his country that has seen many people, both Black and white, killed as a result.
When Trump pressed Ramaphosa about the controversial land expropriation law, he replied that South Africa’s constitution “guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership” for “all South Africans,” while comparing the authority Trump cited to the American government’s power of eminent domain, which allows the confiscation of land for public use in the United States.
Trump did not appear convinced.
He asked: “How do you explain that they’re taking people’s land away, and in many cases, those people are being executed?”
“We have thousands of people that want to come into our country, and they’re white farmers, and they feel that they’re going to die in South Africa, and it’s a bad thing,” he said.
At that point, Ramaphosa turned to his Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen, who said he would not “sugar coat” the problem of farm murders and conceded that dealing with the problem would require “a lot of effort to get on top of” and “more policing resources” as well as “a different strategy to be able to deal with it.”
“But certainly, the majority of South Africa’s commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work.,” he said.
Steenhuisen also denounced Malema and explained to Trump that his party, the Democratic Alliance, had joined with Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party to “keep those people out of power.”
“We cannot have those people sitting in the Union Buildings making decisions. That is why, after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in Parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we’ve decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government, because the day they get in to the doors of the Union Buildings in South Africa or control about parliament, that’s what you’re going to see, and that is why this government, working together, needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy, and shut the door forever on that rabble,” he said.
The meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa, which was arranged at the request of the South African government, comes after months of tensions between Washington and Pretoria over the controversial land expropriation law and Trump’s frequent claims that white South Africans are victims of “genocide,” which echo a white supremacist conspiracy theory alleging immigration and forced assimilation threaten the existence of white people — a claim that has fueled racist hate and violence against minority groups as well as parallel conspiracy theories like the so-called “great replacement” theory.
Trump has repeatedly cited the land expropriation law as he has compared efforts by the South African government to combat racial inequalities from apartheid to anti-white discrimination, and South African officials have accused the administration of using claims from white Afrikaners to undermine the country’s genocide case against Israel now before the International Court of Justice.
White Afrikaners, descendants of Europeans who arrived in the country centuries ago, claim to have been denied jobs and become targets of violence for their race — claims that exploded with new legislation regulating property expropriation.
Viral misinformation claimed dozens of daily murders of white farmers. But it’s been estimated that roughly 50 farmers total, from all racial groups, were killed annually in a country that recorded more than 19,000 murders between January and September 2024.
Citing that misinformation, Trump announced in February he was cutting off funding to South Africa — most of which goes to efforts to combat HIV/AIDS — because the government was “confiscating land” and “treating certain classes of people very badly.” He has also threatened to boycott the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, which South Africa is set to host in Johannesburg this November.
His administration also made an exception to its policy freezing the admission of refugees to the United States for a group of Afrikaner farmers, who arrived in Washington earlier this month. The group of 59 were granted asylum on Trump’s orders.
Ramaphosa’s government had asked for the visit in hopes of defusing the tensions, and as he arrived in Washington he embarked on a charm offensive meant to disarm Trump and put him at ease.
Joining him in the Oval Office for the bilateral sit-down with the American president were two prominent South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, both of whom are friends with Trump.
Ramaphosa also brought Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire and luxury goods magnate as part of his official delegation and at the top of the meeting presented Trump with a book of South African golf courses.
At the outset, he told Trump that he had come “essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa” and noted that the two countries had been “long, long-standing partners in many, many ways.”
“We’ve collaborated in many fields, in space, issues, in energy, and in trade, and we therefore need to reset that, particularly in light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, two countries, and our people now have been empowered by yourself and myself to start engaging, and we hope that you will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries,” he said.
Following the tense moments including the playing of the inflammatory video and Trump’s “genocide” accusations, it was the white golfers and the billionaire who finally managed to calm the move and soothe the American president.
Asked by Trump to weigh in, Els said he and Goosen were both there as “proud South Africans” who “want to see things get better in our home country.”
He told the president that they had both come to meet with members of the Trump administration to help “see a way forward” so the country can “flourish.”
“You know, we got some great things going on. Businesses getting involved with government, farming. Farmers are getting involved in local municipalities, trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that’s been decaying for a long time,” he said. “But we need, I feel we need the U.S. to push this thing through.”
Rupert, the luxury goods tycoon, told Trump that the crime in his country was affecting people of all races and required more work and resources.
“We have too many deaths. It’s across the board. It’s not only white farmers. It’s across the board. We need technological help. We need Starlink at every police station,” he said.
Trump appeared affected by their participation and said he hoped his administration can “do something” for South Africa.
“Look, I have so many friends. These two men, I have great admiration for them, because I know what they do for a living, and that’s a very hard living, going from city to city, from country to country, and hitting a ball 350 yards, like they do, getting the ball in the hole is very tough with lots of people watching. That’s a very tough living. You know, they’re champions. I respect champions, and I respect very much, and I think the country is very lucky. They really wanted to be here. They could be elsewhere,” he said.
Following the intense discussion held in full view of the White House press corps and the reporters traveling with Ramaphosa, both delegations retreated to the Cabinet Room for what the South African leader described as a “delicious” three-course lunch during a press conference later in the afternoon after he and his delegation had left the White House.
Ramaphosa told reporters the meeting had been “really good” and said the discussions over lunch had been “in-depth” conversations “around issues of trade and investment.”
He said there had been agreement that there would “continue to be engagement between South Africa and the United States officials, particularly at the trade and industry level.”
“I was rather pleased that there’s a firm agreement and undertaking that we’re going to continue engaging so there’s no disengagement for us. That was one of the key outcomes that we had wanted,” he said.
Ramaphosa added that the talks behind closed doors didn’t include more discussions of the dubious “genocide” claims.
We didn’t dwell on that issue, it having been dealt with thoroughly during the engagement in the Oval Office,” he said.
