Washington DC:
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday confronted his South African counterpart at the White House over an inflammatory speech made by the latter’s colleague, calling for the death of white farmers in the African nation. This is President Trump’s second confrontation at the White House in full media glare – the first being a verbal duel with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, who he blamed for prolonging the war.
Hosting the African leader at the Oval Office in the White House, President Trump decided to play out an audio-visual clip, which the US President has linked to a “White genocide” in South Africa. President Ramaphosa, who looked visibly displeased about the sudden attack by Donald Trump, has denied such allegations.
South Africa has maintained that the allegations about White people being targeted and killed in the country are entirely false. Pretoria and Cape Town have acknowledged that the murder rates in the country are high, but have stressed that the overwhelming majority of victims are Black.
The meeting between the two Presidents began on a friendly note, as both leaders spoke about golf. President Trump also complimented the South African President about the golfing talent in the African nation. President Ramaphosa then brought up the ‘T’ word that is Trump’s latest-favourite, and sought to discuss trade between the two nations. He also mentioned a critical minerals deal.
Both leaders smiled and talks were going smoothly. The President Trump sprung a surprise on the South African leader, targeting him over one of the most contentious areas of dispute between the countries – an alleged “White genocide”. Heads turned as Trump asked for a video to be played.
As it played out, President Ramaphosa sat expressionless. Somewhere midway through the video, the South African President turned around to get a glimpse of it. Claiming the video to be proof of a “White genocide”, Donald Trump then said that the video showed graves of thousands of white farmers.
Maintaining his calm, President Ramaphosa denied ever seeing this video before. He added that he will find out what the location of this video was and dig deeper into the authenticity of it.
