What does the US meeting tell us about our leaders?

THE much-anticipated meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his counterpart in the US, President Donald Trump, lived up to expectations, with the latter turning up the heat on his guests.

- ZAKHELE COLLISON NDLOVU

By the admission of our delegation, South Africa is a very dangerous place because of rampant crime and lawlessness.

While the jury is still out as to whether Ramaphosa succeeded in his attempts to reset the strained bilateral relations, what is clear is that the meeting gave the international community the impression that South African leaders are failing in their constitutional duty to protect citizens and govern the country.

The result is that our pride as a beacon of hope in Africa is now hurt. The South African government came across as inept and lacking the political will to deal decisively with the scourge of violent crime, mass unemployment and racial intolerance, to name a few crises.

We are not yet privy to what was discussed behind closed doors and the deals that were made. What will be remembered about the meeting is Trump’s wild and unsubstantiated claims of genocide suffered by Afrikaners and his display of brute power over Ramaphosa in front of the cameras.

One could easily tell that Ramaphosa, like Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, went to the White House with a begging bowl.

Unlike Zelensky, though, Ramaphosa went out of his way to massage the errant Trump’s ego and thus came across as submissive; suffice it to say that some people would argue that he was being diplomatic.

However, the big takeaway and the elephant in the room has got to be the painful admission from the South African delegation of the government's helplessness in the fight against rampant crime.

This helplessness was in full display in 2021 during the looting spree after former president Jacob Zuma was arrested. To date, not even a single mastermind behind the 2021 riots has been successfully prosecuted. Similarly, those fingered by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry have not been prosecuted, suggesting that there’s no political will to deal decisively with corruption and wrongdoing.