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US President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House with allegations of mass killings and land seizures from white people, in a scene reminiscent of his February ambush of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
South Africa rejects the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime. Murder rates are high in the country, but the overwhelming majority of victims are Black.
Ramaphosa arrived saying he wanted to discuss trade and critical minerals, and the meeting got off to a cordial start as he and Trump exchanged remarks about golf. Champion South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen were present as part of Ramaphosa’s delegation.
But the televised Oval Office meeting soon took a different course, with Trump showing a video and printed articles purporting to show evidence to back up his unfounded claims that white South Africans are being persecuted.
“People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated, and in many cases, they’re being killed,” said Trump in one of a series of accusations.
South Africa, which endured centuries of draconian discrimination against Black people during colonialism and apartheid before becoming a multi-party democracy in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, rejects Trump’s allegations.
A new land reform law, aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid, allows for expropriations without compensation when in the public interest, for example if land is lying fallow. No such expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court.
The video shown by Trump showed white crosses which Trump said were the graves of thousands of white people, and opposition leaders making incendiary speeches. Trump suggested that one of them, Julius Malema, should be arrested.
Ramaphosa mostly sat expressionless while the video was played, occasionally craning his neck to look at it. He said he had not seen it before, and that he would like to find out what the location was.
The video was made in September 2020 during a protest after two people were killed on their farm a week earlier. The crosses did not mark actual graves.
An organiser of the protest told South Africa’s public broadcaster at the time that they represented farmers who had been killed over the years.
Trump then displayed printed copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.
Ramaphosa said there was crime in South Africa, and the majority of victims were Black. Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not Black.”
Ramaphosa responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”
The South African leader remained composed throughout the scene.
In recent months, Trump has criticised the land reform law and South Africa’s genocide court case against Israel.
He has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims Pretoria says are baseless.
The United States is South Africa’s second-biggest bilateral trading partner after China. But the country is facing a 30 per cent tariff under Trump’s currently suspended “Liberation Day” regime, and Ramaphosa was keen to discuss a trade deal and business opportunities.
