South Africa's leader aims to salvage relationship with Trump in White House visit

Johannesburg | US President Donald Trump will host South Africa's leader at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that might be tense after Trump accused the country's government of being racist against white people and allowing a “genocide” to take place against minority white farmers.

South Africa has strongly rejected the allegations and President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country's relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994.

Trump has launched a series of accusations at South Africa's Black-led government, including that it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy by supporting Iran and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Ramaphosa said he hopes to correct what he calls damaging mischaracterisations during the meeting, which is Trump's first with an African leader at the White House since he returned to office.

Some in South Africa worry their leader might get "Zelenskyy'd" — a reference to the public bashing Trump and Vice President JD Vance handed out to the Ukrainian president in their infamous Oval Office meeting in February.

In advance of the meeting, a White House official said Trump's topics of discussion were likely to include the need to condemn politicians who “promote genocidal rhetoric” and to classify farm attacks as a priority crime. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said Trump also was likely to raise South African race-based barriers to trade and the need to “stop scaring off investors.” Here's what to know ahead of the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting.

Will Trump stand by the genocide allegation? Trump's criticism of South Africa began in early February in a post on Truth Social. In it, he accused South Africa's government of seizing land from white Afrikaner farmers and a "massive Human Rights VIOLATION" against members of the white minority.

Trump's allegation that Afrikaners were being mistreated was at the centre of an executive order he issued days later that cut all US assistance to South Africa. He went further this month, alleging there was a “genocide” against white farmers, which has been denied by the government and farmers themselves.

The Trump administration has brought a small group of white South Africans to the US as refugees in what it says is the start of a relocation program for those being persecuted.

The US has been asked if it will stand by that genocide allegation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS that it would and that the administration felt there was evidence, citing instances of white farmers being murdered and claiming some were being “forcibly removed” from their properties.

Some white farmers have been killed in violent home invasions. But the South African government says the causes behind the relatively small number of homicides are misunderstood by the Trump administration; they are part of the country's severe problems with crime and not racially motivated, it says. Black farmers have also been killed.

The South African government denies any property has been seized from white farmers and says that is misinformation.

South Africa's contentious land law

Trump might confront Ramaphosa on South Africa's contentious new land expropriation law, which has been criticised at home and is the subject of a legal challenge. The law gives the government the ability in some cases to take land without compensation.

South African Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, who is white and a member of a different political party from Ramaphosa, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the law needs to be looked at. But, he said, no land was being seized from farmers, and claims of genocide and ongoing land expropriation were false.

“When you mischaracterise things like that and this misinformation gets out, it does have real-world consequences,” said Steenhuisen, who is part of the South African delegation in Washington. “And we've seen with the United States what those real-world consequences are.”

What is Musk's connection?

South African-born Elon Musk — an influential Trump ally — has been at the forefront of the criticism of his homeland, casting its affirmative action business laws as racist. Musk said on social media that his Starlink satellite internet service wasn't able to get a license to operate in South Africa because he was white.

South African authorities say Starlink hasn't formally applied. If it did, it would be bound by laws that require foreign companies to allow 30 per cent of their South African subsidiaries to be owned by shareholders who are Black or from other racial groups disadvantaged under apartheid. The government calls the affirmative action laws a cornerstone of its attempt to reverse the injustices of apartheid.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday, quoting unnamed sources, that South Africa was willing to negotiate on easing those laws for Musk's Starlink in an attempt to defuse tensions with the US.

Ramaphosa didn't comment on any possible discussions with Musk or his representatives when asked by South African reporters in Washington, saying, “We are a sovereign country and we are a very proud nation and we preserve our sovereignty.”

Getting 'Zelenskyy'd'

Ramaphosa was also asked if he worried he might be “humiliated” in a public appearance with Trump. Parts of the South African media have questioned in the buildup to the White House meeting whether Ramaphosa might get “Zelenskyy'd” — a reference to Trump's berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of the world's media.

Trump has directed much of his criticism at Ramaphosa and senior government officials. “Terrible things are happening in South Africa,” Trump has said. “The leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things.” Ramaphosa said he was not concerned the meeting would become confrontational or that he would be humiliated.

“South Africans are never humiliated, are they? South Africans always go into everything holding their heads high,” he said.