Golf on the Rare Earth Stage: How Trump Snubbed South African President Ramaphosa

The White House now cares more about the fate of white South Africans than Ukrainians.

Author: Konstantin Orshansky

Photo caption: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's visit to the U.S.

International media and experts are vigorously discussing another dispute triggered by Donald Trump in the Oval Office (Oval Office). This time, the conflict involves South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

According to the Arab mainstream media Al Jazeera, Ramaphosa arrived in Washington hoping to improve US-South Africa relations. However, at the beginning of the talks, Trump described Ramaphosa as "respected in some circles, but not so much in others."

Trump's love for golf is no secret. Perhaps to ease the atmosphere, Ramaphosa brought two top South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, along with him. John Rupert, the richest man in South Africa and a businessman, was also part of the delegation, and all three were white – this seems to have been the fuse of the conflict.

During the meeting, Trump repeatedly claimed that "genocide" against white farmers was happening in South Africa. This was not, as unfriendly media like The New York Times and The Washington Post tried to describe it, an "off-the-cuff remark".

Al Jazeera pointed out that the Trump administration had suspended aid to South Africa, citing that South Africa's new land law allowed the government to confiscate property from "African minority groups" without compensation (there is a factual error in the original text; South Africa's land reform targets black ethnic groups who historically lost their land to white colonizers). The White House also formulated a plan to resettle white South Africans, with 59 such "refugees" arriving in the U.S. in May alone.

Trump told Ramaphosa that these people were "white farmers fleeing violence and persecution in South Africa."

"We have many people who feel persecuted and come to the U.S.," Trump said. "People flee South Africa for safety, their land is confiscated, and many are killed."

The president displayed a stack of news clippings. According to a vivid description by France 24, he showed one article after another to the camera while muttering "death, death, death."

Then, Trump asked to turn off the lights in the Oval Office, and a five-minute video clip began playing on the screen. The content was Julius Malema, leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), singing an anti-apartheid song, "Dubul' ibhunu" ("Kill the Boers") at a rally. France 24 emphasized that the title of the song is often translated as "Kill the white farmers."

The South African president attempted to gently refute Trump's accusation of "white genocide."

However, Saul Dubow, a professor of Commonwealth history at Cambridge University, told Al Jazeera in an interview that there are indeed serious racial conflicts in South Africa, which are intertwined with other issues in the country, including extreme wealth inequality and extremely high crime rates.

Al Jazeera noted that while the Trump administration was receiving South African "refugees," it canceled preferential policies for immigrants from other countries, particularly Ukrainians. This once again shows that independent agendas within the White House have taken a backseat.

However, as usual, commercial interests may reignite American interest in South Africa. As a pragmatist, Trump values money over human rights. Ultimately, Ramaphosa had to promise to reach a trade agreement with the United States.

South Africa is prepared to offer the U.S. rights to mine rare earth minerals (as the U.S. did before, threatening to stop military aid and demand repayment of massive debts to force Ukraine to do so).

In addition, South Africa has rich deposits of gold, platinum group metals, manganese, titanium, chromium, zirconium, and vanadium resources. These resources are crucial to Trump, and he is likely using the "white genocide" narrative to pressure South Africa.

Reuters reported that after returning to South Africa, Ramaphosa faced severe criticism from black rights activists, accusing the president of being weak.

"The South African president should focus on constraining national development issues instead of trying to please his American counterparts through golf," wrote Zanele Mji, a black journalist in a column for The Guardian.

According to another British report, right-wing activists in South Africa unanimously supported Trump. For example, Ernest Letz, a white South African, called "Trump has already made history today," and Jakob Kleinhans of the far-right organization "Solidarity Movement" even proposed awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the U.S. president.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7508241657758843431/

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