US President Donald Trump, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House with a delegation from South Africa led by the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, showed attendees videos that Trump said prove the oppression of white citizens of the Republic of South Africa.
According to the BBC, one of those videos was a documentary featuring South African opposition politician Julius Malema singing a song that includes the line “shoot the boer” – referring to white farmers in South Africa. The second allegedly showed a burial site of white farmers. The US President also showed photos of white South Africans he said had been killed. The demonstration of these videos and photos in the presence of journalists came as a surprise to Ramaphosa.
As the BBC’s White House correspondent Bernd Debusmann Jr. notes, despite Trump’s harsh and accusatory rhetoric, Cyril Ramaphosa maintained his composure until the end of the press conference.
While showing a video of the burial site, the South African president asked where the footage was taken, noting that he had never seen the site before. He also condemned Julius Malema’s rhetoric, emphasising that the opposition politician’s statements and actions do not reflect his country’s official position. At the same time, Ramaphosa added that there is indeed a crime problem in the country, but both white and black South Africans are victims of murders.
The meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa was attended by Trump’s advisor, billionaire South African-born Elon Musk, among others. Musk was not part of the conversation, however, according to the BBC, Trump himself addressed him, saying: “this is what Ilon wanted”. At the same time, Trump added that he did not want to engage Musk on the topic of discrimination against white South Africans because he “didn’t think it would be fair to him”.
In May, US authorities defiantly recognised 59 white South Africans as refugees, saying they were fleeing violence and discrimination in their country.
Before leaving the White House, Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters that his closed-door meeting with Donald Trump had gone “very well”. He added that he was looking forward to Trump attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg this November to hand over the G20 presidency to him.