Trial by Trump: Has Ramaphosa emerged stronger?

The South African leader can count on significant gains from his calm response to Trump's ambush

- SAMIR BHATTACHARYA

Here is a new spectacle in global politics, "Trial by Trump," where the world gets to watch live on-screen US President Donald Trump tear into the leaders of other countries. The brutal takedown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February is etched in public memory. Since that infamous meeting, foreign leaders have approached the Oval Office with caution.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's turn came on 21 May. Just a week earlier, 59 Caucasian South Africans were taken as refugees into the US, adding fuel to a narrative pushed by Trump that Ramaphosa's government had failed to protect Caucasian farmers from what the latter alleged was a "genocide."

Land ownership is one of the most complex legacies of South Africa's apartheid rule. Even today, over 80% of its 63 million population owns only around 4% of private land. Hence, equitable land distribution has been on the agenda of the African National Congress (ANC). But the accusation of genocide to wipe out Caucasian farmers is baseless.

In 2024, South Africa dragged Israel, a US ally, to the International Court of Justice for allegedly violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza. It also stood accused of aiding Russia's war effort—not by direct support, but through ambiguous neutrality, joint military drills and the docking of a sanctioned Russian vessel near Cape Town. South Africa's unilateral decision to move Taiwan's liaison office from Pretoria may also have been a sore point. Trump, whose billionaire friend Elon Musk is originally from South Africa, may have planned to corner Ramaphosa with these accusations all along.