South Africa has been a focus of President Trump’s criticism in his second term.
Trump has made discredited statements that white farmers in South Africa are being killed in a genocide. On May 12, Trump welcomed some of those farmers to the United States as refugees. He has also expelled the Ambassador of South Africa to the United States and has cut American aid.
South Africa will have the opportunity to directly direct what Mr. Trump’s wrong information with the scheduled visit of President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa faces the political challenge of standing firm in the principles of his country without anger Trump. The United States is the second largest commercial partner in South Africa, but government officials say that many of their policies that bother Mr. Trump are necessary to undo the racial inequality created by the apartheid of duration.
Mr. Ramaphosa is expected to try Mr. Trump that the United States has a lot to win by maintaining close ties with South Africa, the largest economy in Africa. The South African president will also try to restore his relationship with Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and is perhaps the strongest critic of the leader.
Afrikaner refugees
South African officials have played Mr. Trump’s statement that Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that created and directed the apartheid regime, are being persecuted and killed at home.
South African police do not support the narration of mass murder. From April 2020 to March 2024, 225 people were killed in farms in South Africa, according to South African police officers. But many of the victims, 101, were current or previous workers who lived on farms that tend to be black. Fifty -three of the victims were farmers, who are common white.
Mr. Ramaphosa plans to call Mr. Trump to support an independent investigation into genocide statements, said Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for South African President.
Since his first term, Trump has embraced the statements of some Afrikaners that they are attacked in mass murders in rural communities, where many of them cultivate and face discrimination in hiring, property of the land and other areas.
In January, Mr. Ramaphosa signed a measure that allows the government to take private land without providing compensation when it is of public interest. Trump then issued an executive order in February that offers refugee status to Afrikaners. This month, the senior administration officials welcomed 59 Afrikaners as refugees in an airport near Washington.
ELON ALMIZCLE
Musk has been among the strongest critics of his native country, using X -to -extends to amplify Trump’s claims that White South Africans suffer from genocide and racism.
Mr. Ramaphosa has spoken with Mr. Musk several times during the last year in an effort to attract him to do business in the country he left when he was a teenager. He hopes to continue that launch in the White House, where he expects Mr. Musk to be part of Mr. Trump’s delegation, Magwenya said.
Mr. Ramaphosa plans to raise the possibility that Tesla can build electric vehicle load stations through South Africa and, in return, receive favorable rates for teslas to import the country. South Africa also has facilities available to launch rockets for Spacex, Mr. Musk’s space exploration company.
Israel and the War in Gaza
Mr. Ramaphosa plans to counteract Trump’s Afrikaner genocide accusations pointing to Israel’s support. His spokesman said that Mr. Ramaphosa will argue that it is “ridiculous that she can use the genocide in South Africa, while, on the other hand, she is looking the other way where the real genocide is being committed.”
South Africa brought genocide charges against Israel in The Hague in 2023, related to Israel’s behavior in his war against Hamas in Gaza. Some officials and analysts of the South African government said they believed that genocide charges contributed to the Trump administration attacks to their country.
Mr. Ramaphosa plans to rely on alignment areas that he has with Trump in Israel, such as the need to ensure that humanitarian aid between Gaza.
This could be a complicated balance so that Mr. Ramaphosa smells. As a matter of principle, South Africans have long equated what the experimental apartheid to which the Palestinians are supporting under the control of Israel.
Israel has strongly denied the accusation of genocide in court, and for a long time has rejected the comparison of the treatment of Israel of the Palestinians with apartheid.
Trump has also criticized what he perceives as the cozy relationship of South Africa with Iran and Hamas; South Africa has recently involved diplomatically with both. Those could be pressure points that Mr. Ramaphosa will have difficulty diverting.
A new commercial agreement
While the future of a preferential commercial program for sub -Saharan Africa countries remains in doubt, Mr. Ramaphosa plans to propose a commercial agreement for South Africa.
Mr. Magwenya refused to sacrifice details of the proposal, but has said that she could analyze areas in which the two nations could increase trade, such as the energy sector.
South African officials believe that appealing to Mr. Trump’s economic and commercial interests would be the best way to obtain the deep philosophical differences they have with him.
In 2023, South Africa exported products worth $ 13.9 billion to the United States and was the largest market in sub -Saharan Africa for US imports, taciting in goods of $ 7.2 billion in goods.