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There is no white genocide in South Africa, but there has certainly been an assault in the oval office. When Donald Trump forced his guest, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to see unbearable images of hate speech and false evidence Of the cemeteries of the White Farmers, he showed that no visitor of the White House is safe from the type of ritualized humiliation infaminated in Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The leaders of other nations will have to think a lot about whether it is worth looking for a meeting once coded in the oval office if they are most likely preparing for an ambush.
Trump’s falsehood parade was clearly aimed at his Maga base. No one who knows South Africa could take your Representation of the country. It is a fact that violence is common and that Afrikaner farmers are Sometimes the victims. But to say that this is equivalent to a genocide is a lie, one that deliberately ignores the fact that South Africans who suffer disproportionately for violence are not white.
For the neutral observer, and the possible tourist or investor, the reputation of South Africa was ritually destroyed during stellar schedule. All the optics of the event, in which Triumph Deferred to the white golfers on a black president and cabinet ministers, evoked unpleasant apartheid echoes.
Given the probability of an ambush, Ramaphosa must have discussed the wisdom of appearing. The time of ignominy was obviously the price extracted to start a dialogue after months in which Pretoria representatives in Washington have been covered with stone and their expelled ambassador.
In general, Ramaphosa and his carefully selected delegation of prominent Afrikaners, including a member of the cabinet, a billionaire and two famous golfers, absolute themselves as expected. The cunning Ramaphosa did not approach Trump’s bait.
The South African delegation evaluated in private, correctly or incorrectly, which left Washington in a marginally better position than came. The conversations have begun to aim to mitigate the rates of 30 percent announced on the “Day of Liberation” and to promote US investments in critical minerals and telecommunications, even by Elon Musk Starlink.
The White House confrontation raises broader questions. One is how countries should navigate a world in which the United States has adopted its own form of diplomacy of “Wolf Guerrero”. It was a minor victory for Ramaphosa that Trump did not raise the Pretoria Demand against Israel In the International Court of Justice, they nor do criticisms about their cozy relations with Russia, China and Iran. Pretoria must stick to its non -aligned state, although that does not mean pleased the dictators. To appear in Washington was part of a high -risk commitment to demonstrate that it values relations with the United States and the West in general.
It is at home that Ramaphosa needs to act more decisively. He rightly condemned the racial hatred of Julius Malema’s radical leader and the defense of mass expropriation. That way is Zimbabwe. The government of the National Unit of one year, of which it is part of the Democratic Alliance in favor of business, is that of ANC Best opportunity In years to leave stupid rhetoric and bad policies.
You must take violent crime more seriously. That means reinforcing the application of the law. But it also means addressing the causes of crime: unemployment and poverty. The ANC needs to drop its antagonism rooted into the private sector, which has the key to many of the country’s structural problems. Their policies must go beyond enriching a corporal clique at the expense of a broader economic dynamism. The radical change is in order, not because Trump will organize a grotesque show, but because the South Africans demand it.