I would not be president for all the tea in China

AT THE time of writing, the radio stations in Joburg are abuzz with commentary about the meeting of President Ramaphosa and Donald Trump in Washington. Ordinary folk have very strong feelings about this event and have happily spent their airtime waiting for their 30 seconds of fame on the radio.

- ASHLEY GREEN-THOMPSON

There are views that say Ramaphosa capitulated to the bully boy tactics of the orange demagogue, smiling obsequiously at the torrent of fake news abuse. There are those who say that our president was the paragon of diplomacy in managing a raging nutjob with a loose grasp of reality, calmly refusing to take the bait so inelegantly on offer.

Some of Ramaphosa's team members were not the usual allies he would take into battle. There were golfers and billionaires, and a cabinet minister from the former official opposition all with Afrikaans names.

Their contributions in the White House meeting have made people either new fanboys of rich old white men, or bitter critics of how thirty years of democracy has done little to change who holds the power.