Ramaphosa-Trump updates: US pushes South Africa on ‘genocide’ claims

Thank you for joining us.

Read our analysis on how Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington will affect US-South Africa relations amid Trump’s false “genocide” claims here.

Watch highlights from Trump’s contentious meeting with Ramaphosa here.

And follow our broader coverage of the Trump administration here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of today’s main events.

• US President Donald Trump hosted his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House amid tensions between the two countries.
• Trump “ambushed” Ramaphosa with news clippings and a video to back his baseless claim that South Africa is committing genocide against South African farmers.
• “Death, death, death, horrible death,” Trump said, referring to alleged attacks against white farmers, but Ramaphosa countered by saying that crime in the country has targeted citizens of all backgrounds.
• Despite the tense public portion of the meeting, Ramaphosa said his talks with Trump – which focused on trade and investments – went well and called the visit a “great success”.
• South African opposition politician Julius Malema, who was featured on Trump’s video chanting “Kill the Boer”, dismissed the White House meeting as a “group of older men” gossiping about him.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) slams Trump for baselessly accusing South Africa of genocide while continuing to provide military aid to Israel, which rights groups and UN experts say is committing genocide in Gaza.

“Our government must stop obsessing over an imaginary genocide in South Africa while enabling the real and ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the group said in a statement.

South Africa’s delegation has sought to stress trade and investment during the visit to Washington, DC, despite Trump’s focus on claims of white persecution in South Africa.

Speaking shortly before the delegation returns home, Trade Minister Parks Tau said the government had submitted a proposal for a new trade deal during the meeting.

The proposal included buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, which was positively received, Tau said.

Ramaphosa also said earlier that the US and South Africa would in the future discuss cooperating on mining rare earth metals.

• The South African leader hailed today’s meeting as a “success”, saying there was a “firm agreement” to continue engagements, particularly on trade and investment.
• Ramaphosa downplayed Trump’s confrontation in the Oval Office, instead saying he believed there remained “doubt and disbelief” in Trump’s mind over his claims of white “genocide”.
• He reiterated there is “no genocide” in South Africa, and voiced hope that the inclusion of South African golf icons and billionaire Johann Rupert may have “deposited in his head some information about what he’s been hearing and seeing”.
• Ramaphosa said he “expected” Trump to visit South Africa, and that US participation in November’s G20 meeting “is going to be happening”.
• He said Musk was in attendance during the private lunch, saying the billionaire wants to export his Teslas to South Africa.
• He said South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ “did not arise” during the private meeting.

The South African president says his country’s case at the top UN court alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians was not discussed during the meeting with Trump.

“The ICJ issue did not arise during the lunch,” he told reporters.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said yesterday that he was confident that Trump “will demand” that South African officials change their policy towards Israel.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said the US was “very concerned” about South Africa’s ICJ case.

Suggesting that Ramaphosa emerged from a stressful situation at the White House, a reporter tells the South African president: “I don’t know if you drink alcohol, but if you do, you deserve a stiff whiskey.”

“Give that man a Bell’s,” Ramaphosa responded, laughing. The expression stems from whiskey commercials that portray a character pulling off an impressive achievement.

Ramaphosa has said that, despite Trump’s public confrontation in the Oval Office, the private meeting earlier today “didn’t dwell” on claims that white South Africans were being persecuted.

He added that the delegation “did not run away” from the high crime rate in South Africa, despite rejecting that there is a white “genocide”.

“We kept saying there is a security problem, and not running away from that is criminality, and we even sought to deal with it from its genesis, that in the end, when the economy is not growing, when there’s poverty, when there’s unemployment,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the private talks focused on trade, investment and Trump’s threat of 30 percent tariffs.

“I do believe that our visit here has been a great success,” he said.

The South African leader indicated there would not be a further rupture in US-South Africa relations, despite the confrontational Oval Office meeting earlier today.

Ramaphosa said, “There will continue to be engagement between South Africa and the United States officials, particularly on the trade and industry level, to deal with the package of issues that we had tabled that have to do with trade and investment.”

“So, I was rather pleased that there’s a firm agreement and undertaking that we’re going to continue engaging so there’s no disengagement,” he said.

The South African leader has been speaking to the press following his meeting with Trump.

“In the end, we had a really good bilateral,” he said, adding that a number of issues came up, many of which the press and public “observed”.

We were able to have a robust engagement with Mr Trump in your presence,” he told reporters.

• The White House has warned that failure by the Republican-controlled House to pass his signature tax cut bill would represent an “ultimate betrayal”.
• A judge has ruled the Trump administration violated a court order on third-country deportations with flight linked to South Sudan.
• The Justice Department moved to cancel settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville that called for police department overhauls.
• Iran has confirmed nuclear talks with the US in Rome on Friday.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spokesperson Sinawo Thambo says Trump showing a video of Malema chanting “Kill the Boer” is confirmation that the group is on the “right side of history”.

Trump had played the footage during his meeting with Ramaphosa to back his unfounded claims that South Africa is committing genocide against its white population.

Thambo told Newzroom Afrika that the chant is “directed to a system of oppression where a white minority controls the resources and the land of South Africa, while the Black majority continues to be slaves at their behest”.

He added that the apartheid-era chant should not be taken literally, calling Trump an “irrational, illiterate, racist” US president.

“Our reaction is that we’ve caused the necessary shake and debate internationally, and it’s something that we should continue to do and not retreat,” Thambo said.

South Africa’s leader departed the White House around 3pm (19:00 GMT) after a roughly three-hour visit – including a confrontational Oval Office meeting with Trump.

Asked how the meeting went as he climbed into a black SUV, Ramaphosa replied, “Very well, thank you.”

He offered a similar reply when asked if he thought Trump had heard him out.

“Yes, he did, and it went very well,” Ramaphosa said.

Malema shot to prominence in 2008 when, as president of the ANC Youth League, he vehemently defended then-President Jacob Zuma, who was facing prosecution on corruption charges.

“We are prepared to die for Zuma,” Malema famously told a rally. “We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma.”

By 2012, Malema had transformed into Zuma’s biggest critic, and after his expulsion from the ANC, he formed the EFF as a populist, far-left movement.

He first sang “Kill the Boer” (Dubul’ ibhunu) in 2010, while still ANCYL leader, but it has since become something of an EFF calling card.

We published an explainer about the chant earlier this year. Read it here.

The South African delegation included figures already in Trump’s orbit, including billionaire Johann Rupert and professional golfer Ernie Els.

Both men sought to dispel the notion that white South Africans were being persecuted. Rupert said that while crime is high, it is “across the board. It’s not only white farmers.” He sought to focus the meeting on South Africa’s need for technological development.

Els relayed a similar message.

“Ernie Els knows Donald Trump. He’s known him for a long time. He talks Donald Trump’s language when it comes to golf,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reported from Washington, DC.

“Donald Trump likes speaking to people like that. He said in the Oval Office, ‘I like winners, and Ernie Els is a winner.'”

Here’s how some of the leading news websites have described the tense meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa at the White House:

• The Daily Maverick: Ramaphosa keeps his cool as Trump launches multimedia ambush in Oval Office
• The South African: Donald Trump ambushes Cyril Ramaphosa with ‘genocide’ accusation
• The Sunday Times: Trump blindsides Ramaphosa with clips of Malema singing ‘kill the Boer’
• Independent Online: ‘Why don’t you arrest him?’: Trump challenges Ramaphosa to arrest Julius Malema over ‘Kill the Boer’
• News24: Trump doesn’t rule out attending G20 in SA, moves to closed meeting with Ramaphosa

South African journalist Carol Paton lauds Ramaphosa’s handling of the public confrontation with Trump at the White House.

“I think it went well for South Africa,” Paton wrote on the website News24. “Trump was determined to humiliate and embarrass Ramaphosa, and he failed. The push back was diplomatically firm and passionate.”