US President Donald Trump has confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa with his claims that there is genocide against white farmers in South Africa. 

Adding another layer of wrong information, the US president claimed that white farmers are “executed” after their farms have been violently grabbed without compensation.

Unflinching, Trump made the claim more than twice, even after Ramaphosa had explained to him that there is no genocide, but that there are victims of rampant crime in the country, including farmers. 

This panned out in front of the global media at the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night, May 21. Ramaphosa was leading a high-powered South African delegation to the USA to “reset” the relationship between the two countries following a strain in the past few months. 

The two leaders’ meeting started collegially, with Trump and Ramaphosa exchanging pleasantries about golf and other issues of mutual interest. 

However, it quickly descended into a confrontation as Trump introduced Ramaphosa as a leader who is respected in some circles and unpopular in others, and repeated his white genocide claims.

Ramaphosa pushed back firmly and politely rebutted Trump’s claims, stating that the emotionally charged accusation of white genocide was neither factual nor government policy. He immediately hit back at Trump’s claims that he was unpopular in some circles, saying, “We are all the same”.

The South African president urged Trump to listen attentively to the voices of reason, including prominent white Afrikaners who formed part of his delegation, whom he said would not be in the Oval Office if there was indeed a white genocide. 

Prominent South Africans, such as billionaire businessman Johann Rupert and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, supported the Ramaphosa administration, adding that the country had a crime problem. Still, it targeted both black and white residents. 

Trump said he would seek answers during a private meeting with the South African delegation. 

He later asked his team to play a video purportedly showing that there is a white genocide in South Africa. The video featured EFF leader Julilus Malema singing the “kill the boer” song, and former President Jacob Zuma of the MK Party talking about taking back the land.

Trump’s focus appeared to be on Malema’s utterances. He later asked Ramaphosa why the EFF leader was not arrested for chanting the infamous kill the boer slogan. 

The US president appeared unmoved by Ramaphosa’s explanation that the EFF and the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party are small parties whose utterances are not government policies and should be ignored. 

He argued that the fact that they can fill up stadiums means they are big political players. 

In what looked like an ambush, Trump later produced press clippings on the murder of white people in South Africa. However, they appeared to have been carefully selected to show only white victims. 

Ramaphosa looked frustrated as Trump played his video clips of Malema calling for the deaths of white farmers, and often looked away, before clarifying that the utterances were no government policy.

Instead, they were the views of opposition parties entitled to express them in the context of South Africa’s multiparty democracy.

Later, COSATU President Zingiswa Losi explained to him that crime in South Africa affects everyone, irrespective of their race.

Closing ranks, Ramaphosa roped in DA leader John Steenhuisen, who is part of the delegation as the Minister of Agriculture, to pacify Trump. 

Steenhuisen insisted that the issue in South Africa is crime, not that white farmers are victims of genocide. 

He added that the DA joined the GNU precisely to keep the MK Party and the EFF out of power. 

Steenhuisen implied that all hell would break loose the day the two left parties grabbed power.

The highlight of the day came when Rupert addressed the meeting. He said the killing is widespread and that technology, such as drones and Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite, could help to stop it.

He lamented that former President Zuma stopped the use of American drones to fight rhino poaching, claiming that the Americans would use the technology to spy on South Africa.

Rupert added that the Western Cape, run by the DA, has the highest murder rate, which is taking place in the Cape Flats. The businessman likened gangs to the M23 rebels operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Rupert also told Trump that illegal immigrants are contributing to the high murder rate in South Africa, adding that technology could address the problem since “illegal aliens” are streaming into South Africa every day.